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February 12, 2012 by Chris Stephens 1 comments

There’s an interesting ad entitled “McDonald’s X California Poppy Seed Bomb Ad” circulating the internet recently that seems—at least in advertising circles—to be on the verge of going viral. The advertisement itself consists of a typical, grassy boulevard in California on which appears McDonald’s famous “golden arches”.

Some websites are reporting that the arches are actually an arrangement of poppies planted (bombed) by the advertisement’s creator. It’s not stated whether the ad was commissioned by McDonald’s. Since poppies are California’s state flower, it is illegal to dig up or destroy them, making the ad indestructible.

Digging a little deeper into the story, however, it appears that the only such evidence of the act stems from its designer, a freelance creative designer named Sean Click. The ad appears on his website with fine print suggesting that the image is actually only a “conceptual idea” created using Photoshop (which certainly seems to be the case based on the Google Street View image shown).

The concept of poppy seed bombing an ad is actually quite ingenious. It’s bound to anger some and even generate resentment (in this case) towards McDonald’s. Yet, the ad’s creator stands to gain significant notoriety for his cleaver handiwork.