McDonald's Sundial Billboard - Breakfast menu clock - (2006)

Leo Burnett Chicago called in the help from an engineer to pull this off. Tp promote McDonald's breakfast and lunch menu, the company erected a working sundial outside Wrigley Field in Chicago that was an actual working sundial. AT the different times of morning, the "clock" would turn Mcmuffin, Coffee and finally Big Mac, right at the strike of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and noon.

To turn the sundial concept into reality, Leo Burnett hired Christian Huff, a Chicago-based electrical engineer and technical advisor to Studio One East, a Chicago graphic design business that does work for Leo Burnett.

Mr. Huff says he evaluated several available billboards before settling on the one west of Wrigley Field, where the sun hits at just the right angle to tell time between 6 a.m. and noon.
He then designed an aluminum set of McDonald's arches measuring four feet by three-and-a-half feet to serve as the "dial" mounted above the billboard. "The underlying concept is simple, but the application is messy," Mr. Huff says, explaining that he had to tweak the positioning of the arches so it would cast an undistorted shadow on the billboard at noon, when the arches fall on a sandwich, signaling lunchtime.
The billboard will remain in place until August, when the sun starts to wane, but Mr. Huff says he's helping Leo Burnett evaluate other concepts.
Without providing specifics on what future breakfast billboards - or other breakfast promos -- will feature, McDonald's Mr. Jackson says, "You'll continue to see those elements. We have a number of different tactics were employing."

Chicago Business

Ad agency: Leo Burnett