The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2023–2026
McDonald's Japan turns 'Smile ¥0' into 'No Smiles' — a Gen Z hiring anthem
McDonald's Japan remakes its iconic 'Smile ¥0' promise into ano's song 'I Won't Give You a Smile' — crew applications hit 115%.
McDonald's Japan
What it had to solve
McDonald's Japan ran about 2,900 restaurants with 100M+ monthly visitors, but its ~200,000 crew members were shrinking year by year as Japan's birthrate fell and Gen Z — about 60% of the workforce — saw the brand's 50-year 'Smile ¥0' hospitality rule as a barrier to working there. The campaign had to recruit Gen Z crew without betraying the brand.
How it works
In June 2023 McDonald's Japan faced a recruiting crisis: its roughly 200,000 crew members were shrinking as the birthrate fell, and Gen Z — about 60% of the workforce — saw the brand's 50-year 'Smile ¥0' hospitality promise as a reason not to apply. A generation that wanted to live on its own terms did not want to be ordered to smile.
TBWA\HAKUHODO's answer was to retire the asset in public. It cast ano, a Gen Z-beloved artist famous for not smiling — she had even been fired from a part-time job for it — and made her both customer and crew in an original song and music video, 'Smile Agenai' ('I Won't Give You a Smile'), released on 21 June 2023. The title line became the message: McDonald's would no longer demand smiles.
The provocation was real, not symbolic: the company rewrote its hiring manuals, removed the smile obligation from crew roles, and changed the recruitment promise from 'work with your smile' to 'work with your style'.
The MV passed 36 million views in three months — enough for every Gen Zer in Japan to have seen it more than twice. Applications rose to 115% of the prior year, a company record; McDonald's took 100,000+ new hires. The work won the Spikes Asia 2025 Entertainment Grand Prix and 2026 Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix, plus Cannes, LIA, Clio, Effie, One Show and MAD STARS awards, and it set off a wave of 'be yourself' employer campaigns across Japan.
Why it lands
- It turned the brand's most sacred asset — the ¥0 smile — into the very thing Gen Z rejected, making the tension the message.
- The casting was the argument: ano's real firing for not smiling gave the song an authenticity no script could buy.
- The policy change made the ad true — crews really were allowed not to smile, so the campaign could not be dismissed as a stunt.
- One line, 'I won't give you a smile', condensed the entire strategic flip into a repeatable, memeable chorus.
- A hiring goal drove a cultural message, so the work served recruitment and brand love at the same time.
What it did
The MV topped 36 million views in three months — enough for every Gen Zer in Japan to see it more than twice. Crew applications rose to 115% of the prior year, a record high, and McDonald's made 100,000+ new hires, while brand love among Gen Z rose 130%. It won the Spikes Asia 2025 Entertainment Grand Prix and 2026 Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix, plus Cannes, LIA, Clio, Effie, One Show and MAD STARS honours.
What you can take
Re-own a brand asset the audience has outgrown: retire it publicly through a celebrity who embodies the objection, and change the actual policy so the campaign is true — conviction is what spreads.
Since then
The song became a symbol of the 'Be Yourself' movement and was followed by other Japanese companies changing their own workplace rules. McDonald's Japan rewrote its 50-year-old smile manual, and the campaign stayed a live proof-point for hiring through 2026, when it took the Spikes Asia Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix. Its award run — Cannes Gold, LIA Grand, Clio Music Grand Prix, MAD STARS Golds, One Show Best of Discipline — made it one of the most decorated Japanese campaigns of the mid-2020s, and the reference case for turning a declining brand value into a recruiting asset.
Sources
- 「スマイルあげない」キャンペーンが、「カンヌライオンズ2024」にて金賞および銅賞を受賞
- No Smiles | HAKUHODO
- TBWA HAKUHODO wins nine awards including Grand Prize at Spikes Asia 2025
- あのちゃんが、マッククルーに？マクドナルドとコラボしたMV「スマイルあげない」を公開
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