McDonald’s kicked off an anime and manga-inspired activation across the world in February but was met with some slight backlash and now the brand has been accused of locking the advertisements to just Japan.
McDonald’slaunched an anime-inspired marketing campaignaround its new sauce, Savoury Chili WcDonald’s Sauce.
The promotion was limited to a few locations and also offered anime shorts and manga centered around the fast-food chain.
The WcDonald campaign wascaught up in some backlash, however, as anime fans said the promotion leaned too hard into stereotypical anime fare. Now, it looks like the next set of anime ads are region-locked to Japan.
Japanese McDonald’s ads seemingly region locked
The company has not responded to the criticism or said why these new sets of ads are region-locked for viewers outside of Japan. However, the internet consensus seems to be that the company is somehow embarrassed by the negative reaction and doesn’t want the ads to bring further engagement.
“The Japanese Ad mogged America so bad they restricted it to Japan,”one postsaid.
Some on social media have been reposting the videos for those out of the market to see. They feature a softer anime inspiration with a cartoon women promoting McDelivery.
Whether this was a conscious move from the company, or just what was already planned for the Japanese market, remains to be seen.
Declan McLaughlin was a Gaming & Esports Writer on Dexerto’s US team, specializing in Valorant and League of Legends. He has bylines at Upcomer and Inven Global.
