2% of India’s population is disabled, that’s nearly 27 million people - more than the entire population of Australia. 27 million individuals who are routinely left out of marketing efforts, national initiatives and even the most basic experiences, because of our deep-set apathy towards the disabled. Disability is an invisible problem in India, with the government and most companies doing the bare minimum.

As McDonald’s our mission was to ‘Make Delicious Feel-Good Moments Easy For Everyone’. But when we discussed disability, we somehow only fixated on the easy i.e., access and not feel-good experience.

We realised that for many people with limited upper limb mobility the feel-good burger experience probably rated zero.

Our objective was to right this wrong in a way that drove true inclusivity at McDonald’s – capturing the country’s attention, improving people’s perception of our brand and inviting audiences that had long been ignored by Food Retail.

Everyone loves a burger, unfortunately it takes two able hands to hold the burger and bite into its delicious, juicy goodness.

Introducing, EATQUAL:

A small step in designing experience for the disabled,

A giant leap for access and inclusivity in food retail.

We worked with NASEOH (National Society For Equal Opportunities For the Handicapped) India to understand the challenges and requirements of the target group. Prototyping and running trials until we found the perfect solution.

A unique packaging design solution that reimagined the McDonald’s experience for millions of people struggling with limited upper limb mobility. An upright hexagonal packaging system which locks the burger and its contents into a case that is easy to pick up, even with one hand.

For most, eating a burger has been a very familiar experience. In pop culture and even in everyday life, the two-hand hold became an iconic code for burger eating.

But for people with limited upper limb mobility, eating their favorite burger often meant loss of dignity and independence, and a whole lot of embarrassment. Our research revealed that instead of being able to focus on the taste, they worried about making a mess or looking clumsy in a restaurant. Many even confessed to not having eaten out in public in years due to the stares and looks of pity they usually get in restaurants.

We launched our Eatqual Packaging on International day of Persons with Disabilities via facebook groups and NGOs dedicated to the disabled. We collaborated with influencers from the differently abled community – from athletes to artists, to get the word out to one and all.

On World Disability Day, we introduced EatQual initiative and packaging as a promise to make the experience of eating a burger equal for everyone.

Over the next few months, we used social media and PR, to announce the initiative to the world and also to specifically target the differently abled community.

On social media, we collaborated with influencers from the differently abled community like Deepa Malik - Paralympic medallist, Suyash Jadhav - Indian Para Swimmer and Dhaval Khatri - a differently abled painter.

In-store events were organised in three major cities: Mumbai, Pune & Chennai; where children with disabilities were invited to enjoy our burgers with the new packaging.

And today, we have EatQual packs available across our stores, for anyone who might need them.

EatQual Captured the Country’s attention

• Impressions: 13.4 Million

• Reach: 11.1 Million

• Earned PR worth ?7.2mn with just a meagre ?200k spent on marketing

• Garnered 300k+ organic views in just 10 days

• Overall giving us a 35x return on investment

Improving McDonald’s Brand Scores

• 33% Increase in Brand Trust

• 67% Increase in Brand Interest

Inviting new audiences that had been long ignored by Food Retail

• Usage of our EatQual packs grew 7x in last 3 months – That’s Nearly 1000 Disabled guests enjoying burgers equally

Eatqual received unprecedented love and praise from our fans and from the disabled community, successfully changing the narrative of inclusivity in an apathetic country who sat up and took notice of a problem that we had long overlooked.