• Ahead of Wimbledon, McDonald’s UK and advertising agency Leo UK have launched a one-day activation inspired by the tennis tournament’s strawberries-and-cream tradition and dipping French fries into milkshakes.
• The promotion, called Shake n’ Serve, includes a specially designed shake and fries carrier available for one day at one McDonald’s location.

No one is exactly sure how strawberries and cream became part of Wimbledon, or when people started dipping French fries into milkshakes. However, a scientific study shows that sweet-and-salty combinations activate sugar receptors called SGLT1 on the sweet-taste cells on our taste buds. And the simplest explanation for the strawberries-and-cream Wimbledon snack might be timing, since the tennis tournament coincided with strawberry season.

McDonald’s UK, in partnership with advertising agency Leo UK, took the Wimbledon tradition and fries/milkshake combo as inspiration for its one-day Shake n’ Serve activation.

Leo UK’s execution is a straight set win. The photography draws on luxury and sports photography. The soft pink used throughout the visuals serves as a perfect doubles partner to the greens used, a nod to the famous grass surface of Wimbledon. The art direction goes beyond typical fast-food presentations of fries and shakes, showing a lot of creativity on Leo UK’s part.

A specially designed carrier was also part of the promotion, made to hold a strawberry-flavored milkshake and an order of McDonald’s fries. The Shake n’ Serve holder is pink with subtle ribbons of cream in the background, and complemented by grass green text.

The Shake n’ Serve carrier was only available on July 9th at the McDonald’s Wimbledon location, with the scarcity surely designed to encourage FOMO hype on social media.