From Kitchen Table to Nationwide Campaign

McDonald’s – 30 Years of Charity

Leo Burnett London | Really Good Films | Director: Beth Brooks

To celebrate 30 years of McDonald’s charity work, we partnered with Leo Burnett London and Really Good Films to create a multi-platform campaign that brought the brand’s long-standing community support to life. The films were designed to run across TV, VoD, radio, and in-restaurant, with complementary stills produced for menus and wider branding.

Directed by Beth Brooks, the campaign used an embedded documentary approach to capture intimate, emotional moments with families supported by the charity — real stories of resilience, warmth, and the small acts of kindness made possible by customers donating their spare change at tills up and down the country.

With less than 90 seconds to make an impact, the edit had to hit the emotional core immediately. Beth and I have worked together on appeal films for Children in Need, Comic Relief, and the BAFTA-winning DIY SOS, where making audiences care (and cry) in the first five minutes is always the goal. This time, we had to do it in half that time.

We cut the ads on Beth’s kitchen table — two filmmakers, a laptop running Avid Media Composer, and a shared instinct for emotional storytelling. The rough cuts were incredibly well received by agency and client alike, with the final aired versions staying remarkably true to those early edits

For me, that’s what great storytelling is about — crafting a film that connects, regardless of the setting. At Here For Story, we bring that same editorial precision, emotional clarity, and collaborative spirit to every project we take on.