• by March 13, 2007

Mornings are about to get a bit wackier now that McDonald's has recast its "Morning Impaired" campaign with a new twist--online video.

The company said it's reupping the effort that it crafted to promote its breakfast menu offerings. This time around, consumers will be invited to create videos about their own morning challenges--like maybe how hard it is to get up and get moving. Visitors will join McDonalds' Society for Morning Impaired, a group committed to returning breakfast to harried consumers. McD's launched the online campaign last year by asking consumers to send their excuses for being late to work in order to promote its breakfast items.

The way the new contest works is that consumers offer their e-mail addresses in exchange for a code to print out a coupon for a free sausage McGriddles sandwich. Consumers can upload their videos to MorningImpaired.com. Then they cast votes for their favorite clips on the site. McDonald's will select three people to serve as characters on the site describing what makes their mornings particularly dysfunctional.

As with any consumer-generated video contest, people can tune in and hear other people's stories. In addition, McDonald's offers a game on the site in which consumers can see just how quickly they can hit the snooze button their an alarm clock. But that's not all: Consumers who opt-in to receive more marketing messages from the company can receive short codes via their cell phones, prompting even more offers.

The effort will run in 44 markets, and is promoted in more than 3,800 restaurants through year-end. A Spanish-language Web site for the campaign is available at Levantateya.com. English and Spanish-language TV spots, radio ads, outdoor, banner ads, point-of-purchase support the promotion.

In late January, McDonald's launched an ad contest on YouTube called "It's Your Break" which asked consumers to submit ads to promote a new Honey Mustard Snack Wrap. The winner won the honor of getting a clip shown on the YouTube home page on Feb.19.