McDonald's as fashion icon? Who would have thought such a thing possible? The marketing brains at the fast-food marketer, that's who. Believe it or not, one of the hottest fashion items this
spring has nothing to do with Prada or Dior or Donna Karan. Instead, it's a line of vintage T-shorts emblazoned with a McDonald's logo. But unlike some hard-to-fathom fads that somehow
capture the imagination of tastemakers by coincidence or accident, this one has savvy marketing strategy written all over it. It started last year with a word-of-mouth marketing campaign that was
developed to boost the burger chain's image among fashion-conscious young people. As part of the effort, the fast-food marketer for the first time licensed use of its old ad slogans and ad characters
on merchandise. McDonald's then hired DIC Entertainment Corp., an entertainment-licensing company that has been successful at reviving nostalgia brands such as Strawberry Shortcake. The two chose
vintage T-shirts, currently a hot fashion item, as their first licensed product. The shirts, which retail for about $55, include the chain's old ad characters, such as Mayor McCheese and Grimace, and
ad slogans, such as "You Deserve a Break Today." To spread the word to hipsters, McDonald's set up a big display in February at Lisa Kline, a trendy Los Angeles boutique. The company also sold the
shirts at Intuition, another well-known L.A. store. The two stores are known for their celebrity clientele. Media coverage followed:
Ellegirl magazine features McDonald's T-shirts on its
"HotPotato" list of must-have items and the April issue of
In Touch magazine features a photo of "Sopranos" star Jamie-Lynn Sigler wearing a "Big Mac Attack" T-shirt
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