McDonald’s India extends its EatQual initiative;
Makes McDelivery Colour Blind Friendly
First-of-its-kind initiative in the food industry
Chennai: When it comes to ordering food, we eat with our eyes first. However, the experience might be different for colour blind people. Colour blindness is more widespread than many realize, with roughly 70 million people in India experiencing it. With an intent to make food ordering more enjoyable and easier for colourblind consumers, McDonald’s India (West and South) – owned and operated by Westlife Foodworld Ltd, has launched a new feature on its McDelivery App and website to make it Colour Blind friendly, first of its kind initiative in the food industry. EatQual 2.0, builds upon McDonald’s India’s (W&S) inclusivity platform EatQual, which was launched three years back, to make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone.
To spread awareness of the new feature, the brand has also unveiled a heartwarming brand film that gives us a perspective on colour blindness and explains how this feature on McDelivery will help consumers with colour blindness improve their experience of viewing their favourite burgers on their McDelivery App and website before placing an order.
Brand Film Link – https://youtu.be/9JA6RpFE-qU
Speaking on the launch of this campaign, Mr. Arvind R.P., Chief Marketing Officer, McDonald’s India (W&S) said, “We at McDonald’s are on a mission to make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone, and we literally mean ‘everyone’. Born from this mission, our EatQual campaign underscores our commitment to breaking down barriers, ensuring that every customer is able to access the brand easily, feels welcome and has a great experience every time they choose to eat with us. Recognizing that we ‘eat with our eyes first’ and acknowledging that colour blindness is a widespread reality, we took the initiative to make our McDelivery App and website more accessible. We hope those with colour blindness will enjoy using this new feature to see the crave-able visuals of their favourite iconic products before ordering, just like all other consumers”.
To ensure a wider reach of the campaign, McDonald’s has partnered with stand-up comedian and influencer Kenny Sebastian for this initiative. Being an individual who has colour blindness, Kenny Sebastian said, “I feel really happy to partner with an iconic brand like McDonald’s on this initiative that makes its services more inclusive and easily accessible to colour-blind people like me. I am sure the McDelivery experience will now become easier to navigate through. I look forward to using the feature to view delicious food images on the app before making my pick”.
Reel link – https://www.instagram.com/reel/CySe5JyKvVG/
Rahul Mathew, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group shared, “We’ve always believed that EatQual is more than just a campaign; it’s a journey that McDonald’s is on. With every intervention, we hope to enhance the eating experience, making it a little more equal for everyone. That’s why we work closely with the community to help us understand what they might be missing and how we can bridge that gap.”
McDonald’s India started the journey of EatQual in 2020 to improve accessibility and inclusivity for people with various disabilities and has been taking definitive steps ever since then. DDB Mudra has partnered with McDonald’s since EatQual’s inception to strengthen this global purpose platform around inclusion. As a part of this new initiative, EatQual 2.0, the newly updated feature can be accessed by users by simply updating the McDelivery App and website. Individuals who are colour blind can select from three colour enhancement options ‘Green-Red’; ‘Red-Green’ and ‘Blue-Yellow’. The App and website use a special algorithm to display the menu in colours that are appropriate for the user. This allows colour blind people to see the real colours of the food and drinks and make more informed decisions about what they want to order.
The brand looks forward to working towards many more such initiatives to make McDonald’s an accessible brand.
The brand launched this initiative on World Sight Day, raising awareness about the campaign through a panel discussion featuring renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Hemalini Samant, Mr. Aniruddh Kothari, a photographer who is also colourblind, and Mr. Arvind R.P., Chief Marketing Officer, McDonald’s India (W&S).
Panel Discussion Link – https://youtu.be/5DDYHgoDfuw?si=s2a04WRcD_2Stiqz
Creative: Rahul Mathew, Harshada Menon, Siddhesh Khatavkar, Kanchi Undevia, Pallavi Mehrotra, Darshika Kapadia, Ashwin Balasubramanian
Business: Delon Mascarenhas, Aarohi Bhanushali, Barkha Bisht
Strategy: Mehak Jaini, Vidisha Jain
Films: Jay Gaikwad, Alisha Dsouza
Production House: Zigzag Films And Media LLP
Director: Shreya Shroff, Anant Singh
Producer: Anupama Alhuwalia, Shina Gupta
About Westlife:
Westlife Foodworld Limited (BSE: 505533) (WFL), formerly known as Westlife Development Ltd (WDL), focuses on setting up and operating Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) in India through its subsidiary Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. (HRPL). The Company operates a chain of McDonald’s restaurants in West and South India, having a master franchisee relationship with McDonald’s Corporation USA, through the latter’s subsidiary.
About Hardcastle Restaurants:
HRPL is a McDonald’s franchisee with rights to own and operate McDonald’s restaurants in India’s West and South markets. HRPL has been a franchisee in the region since its inception in 1996.
HRPL serves over 200 million customers, annually, at its 357 (as of March 31, 2023) McDonald’s restaurants across 56 cities in the states of Telangana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and parts of Madhya Pradesh and Union Territory of Puducherry and provides direct employment to over 10,000 employees. McDonald’s operates through various formats and brand extensions including standalone restaurants, drive- thrus, 24/7, McDelivery, McBreakfast and dessert kiosks. The menu features Burgers, Wraps, and Hot and Cold Beverages besides a wide range of desserts. Several of the McDonald’s restaurants feature an in-house McCafé.
The pillars of the McDonald’s system – Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value – are evident at each of the restaurants that HRPL operates.
For media queries kindly contact:
Pranay Agarwal
Corporate Communications
pranay.agarwal@mcdonaldsindia.com