The effective use of semiotics in marketing: What would you think if someone raised their eyebrows?

Are there any brands you can recognise just through their use of gestures? There are quite a few we can quickly remember, mostly sports-related gestures, expressions and poses that have become brands and trademarks.

For example, Michael Jordan’s flying silhouette, which became the Air Jordan logo, and Usain Bolt’s signature stance, which influenced Mo Farah’s ‘Mobot’ pose, are some of them. Football fans might know the Sharpey Shuffle; if not, they can’t have missed Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Siu’ celebration pose.

Semiotics plays an essential role in branding and marketing, as particular gestures and facial expressions can convey emotions and meanings without using words. They help create a visual narrative that connects with people emotionally, making the brand more memorable and relatable. McDonald’s new campaign in the UK aims to achieve this through its hashtag statement: #RaiseYourArches.

How McDonald’s’ new ad raises actual eyebrows

In the new McDonald’s ad “Raise Your Arches”, directed by the British filmmaker and director Edgar Wright, there is no sight of a burger, restaurant, or the brand’s famous logo till the very end. There is not even a sight of the well-known ‘I’m lovin’ it’ theme. Instead, the brand’s presence appears in small signals, with the red and yellow outfit of the lady opening the ad and the yellow post-it note with the letter ‘M’ written on it.

But most importantly, the brand prefers to communicate its message through the gesture of arching eyebrows as the ad follows a group of employees using a knowing, raised eyebrow signal to convey an invitation to get McDonald’s without saying a word.

Using Semiotics, McDonald’s turned a facial expression into a brand asset.

The ad consistently uses a raising eyebrows expression with a sound effect for the audience to internalise the facial expression and associate it with the brand. We will begin seeing real-life people raising eyebrows at each other to mean McDonald’s. That is a very inspirational way of using semiotics to create a branded meaning for their audience.

According to The Drum’s article, “This McDonald’s ad with no burgers and no restaurants could have baffled the audience, but they got the point with no problem. The subtle branding made zero difference to brand recognition. Within 10 seconds, almost 80% of people knew the ad was for McDonald’s and the only evidence they had was a post-it note with an M.”

Known for its distinctive and creative marketing techniques, McDonald’s once again makes the headlines thanks to its practical usage of semiotics in branding. The arched eyebrows convey a sense of playfulness and fun, aligning with the brand’s overall image of being a place for casual and enjoyable dining.

As a part of the campaign, the brand also created a new logo with arched eyebrows and new Instagram filters people can use to invite friends to grab a burger.

McDonald’s eyebrow trend actually started within the beauty industry.

Huda Katan, beauty vlogger and the founder of Huda Beauty, was the one who came up with McDonald’s arched eyebrow trend in 2017 as a response to the extreme eyebrow trends in the beauty industry. Huda shared a mock tutorial with her followers showing how to get McDonald’s brows, which look like the brand’s golden arches logo, by saying, “These brow trends won’t stop! Tag a friend who loves brows or McDonald’s.” The trend became popular among her followers, who posted themselves with McDonald’s eyebrows shortly after.

The importance of meaning creation

Semiotics plays an essential role in branding and marketing campaigns, as subtle signs can convey emotions, meanings, and messages without using words. They help create a visual narrative that connects with customers emotionally, making the brand more memorable and relatable.

Semiotics is a tool that can be used not only to decipher and decode the meanings within the culture and society but also to create new ones. And McDonald’s ad is an excellent example of doing that. It is good to see organisations recognise the impact of meaning creation rather than product marketing. We hope other organisations, businesses and brands will discover meanings’ long-term value. Because the symbolic space is the future of communication.

pakt is a cross-cultural strategic consultancy that works on semiotics and creative cultural strategy to help its clients discover and create new meanings. If you are interested in using cultural discovery to create meaning for long-term impact and value, please contact us.