Oct 14–20 · Case study
McDonald's McRib
A permanent McRib in the middle of America, sold like a horror film to everyone who has chased one.
- Start to finish
- 1.5 h
- Launched
- Tue 2:06pm
- Posts read
- 16,957
- Votes to pick it
- 3
- Meetings
- 0
Narration, score, sound and the settings are made with AI. The opening photo is from Unsplash; the type and numbers aren't AI.
What we heard
16,957 posts and comments · 7 platforms- Jokes, memes and Family Guy1,387, the loudest
- Loves the taste
- Mourning Germany's McRib
- Says it got worse
- What's in it
- Price
- Waiting for it to come back
- The yearly ritual
- Tied to a specific person
- It's a marketing trick
- Childhood nostalgia
- Hard to find304, the hunt
The loudest were jokes. The most telling were about the hunt: five hours from the Northeast, Michigan to Ohio, ten hours round trip. So we gave them somewhere to drive.
In their words
“My husband drove ten hours round trip once, before we met, to your city. And I remember asking, oh was it for a girlfriend? And he said, yes, it was the McRib.”
The insight
The McRib is always somewhere else, so people treat getting one as a trip.
For 37 years the answer to “where can I always get one?” was Germany. That ends on 27 October 2026. Americans already drive five hours from the Northeast or from Michigan to Ohio for one. Nobody had asked what a fair home for it would look like.
The idea
Come and get it.
One McDonald's near Hartville, Missouri, the 2020 Census center of the U.S. population, sells the McRib 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Every piece tells you how far you are from it, set like a roadside sign: 1,009 miles from Times Square, 4,019 from Honolulu. The films sell it like an October horror trailer. The scariest thing in the field is a crew member who says hi.
Made with AI.
Why McDonald's gets to say it
37years
Germany has had the McRib on the menu every day since 1989. McDonald's Germany sells its last one on 27 October 2026. As far as we can find, no country keeps it all year after that, so from 28 October nobody can always get one anywhere. The job is open.
The spots
Footage, voices, score and sound are made with AI. The type and edit aren't.
Footage, voices, score and sound are made with AI. The type and edit aren't.
The work
10 pieces
Photo from Unsplash.
The street is made with AI; the board isn't.
The airport is made with AI; the board isn't.
The station is made with AI; the board isn't.
How the week went
No regroups were held- Wed
Research
Quiet
- Thu
Research
Quiet
- Fri
Idea
Quiet
- Sat
Work
1.5 hours
0.5 h research, 0.5 h ideas, 0.5 h film
- Sun
Work
Quiet
- Mon
Work
Quiet
- Tue
Ship
Quiet
Launched at 2:06pm.
Made with
Spec work by No Next Steps, not affiliated with or endorsed by McDonald's. McRib is a registered trademark of McDonald's. The footage, voices, score, sound and every setting around the work in place were made with AI; the type, the art on the boards, the distances and the edit weren't. The crew member is an AI likeness. The Golden Arches are the official file, placed untouched. The permanent McRib
- Unsplash · the lit sign on the one-sheet and the drive-thru sign that opens the case study
- U.S. Census Bureau · the 2020 center of population, where every distance starts
- WriteOnSteph · the quote, from a public post on X
- Signal Theory AI Studio · footage, voices, score, sound and settings