McDonald's Switzerland sells the first single McNugget, solving the sharing theorem

For 40 years the Chicken McNugget box has invited a math joke: some quantities simply cannot be ordered, and no pack size divides evenly across every number of friends, so someone is always left fighting for the last nugget. For the 40th anniversary, McDonald's Switzerland and TBWA\Switzerland decided to actually solve the problem instead of mocking it.

Sell the world's first single Chicken McNugget so every possible group size can share fairly — one nugget of love makes 'the last one' a solvable problem.

The brand became the first in the world to sell individual Chicken McNuggets — the 'Chicken McNuggets of Love', priced at CHF 1.20 each (a four-piece box cost CHF 4.80). A nationwide teaser campaign (directed by Harald Zwart, with media by OMD) played the sharing maths dead straight: posters and films 'proved' that not every nugget count fits every table, then revealed the single nugget, available in every Swiss restaurant for a limited time from December 5, 2023.

The limited run became McDonald's Switzerland's strongest snack-sales month ever: Chicken McNugget sales rose 25% and the snack category grew 10.5%, while the story earned about CHF 960,000 in earned media and reached US news. The campaign won a 2025 Webby Award for Best Launch & Drop.

Since Chicken McNuggets appeared in 1983, fans have joked about the 'Chicken McNugget Theorem': with classic pack sizes, some quantities can never be ordered and no box divides evenly across every number of diners, so somebody always loses the last nugget. McDonald's Switzerland and TBWA\Switzerland decided to take the joke literally for the menu item's 40th birthday.

On December 5, 2023 the brand became the first in the world to sell individual Chicken McNuggets. Dubbed the 'Chicken McNuggets of Love', the single nugget cost CHF 1.20 while a four-piece box was CHF 4.80, and it was available in every Swiss restaurant for a limited time. A nationwide teaser campaign presented the maths as deadpan lesson material — showing that not every number of nuggets matches every number of people at the table — before revealing that the solution was a single, orderable nugget.

The stunt paid off commercially: Effie Switzerland recorded the strongest snack-sales month in the company's local history, with Chicken McNugget sales up 25% and snack-category sales up 10.5%, plus around CHF 960,000 in earned media as the story crossed into US news. In May 2025 the campaign collected a Webby Award in the Best Launch & Drop category, the agency's first Webby.

The idea worked because it turned a shared complaint into a product change rather than a punchline: the constraint the audience had been joking about for decades — that sharing maths never works out — was removed with a one-nugget SKU, letting every customer order the exact number their table needed.

It converts a consumer math joke into a real product change, so the joke becomes the launch story.

The teaser creates tension (the impossible sharing maths) before the single nugget releases it, giving the reveal a punchline.

A CHF 1.20 SKU is a tiny, low-risk offer, yet it made the whole nugget range newsworthy.

The 'first country in the world' claim gave earned media a concrete hook that travelled beyond Switzerland.

Solving a universal annoyance ('who gets the last nugget') gives the campaign built-in relatability across cultures.

When your audience has a running joke about a flaw in your product, don't just quote it in an ad — change the product rule so the joke becomes true, and the launch does the sharing for you.

The single Chicken McNugget was a limited-time offer rather than a permanent SKU, and its effect was measured at the moment of the run: a record snack month, +25% McNugget sales and roughly CHF 960,000 in earned media, including pickup in US news. In 2024 the campaign won Swiss Effie recognition, and in May 2025 it won TBWA\Switzerland's first Webby Award (Best Launch & Drop), keeping the 'Chicken McNuggets of Love' as a recurring case study for turning a product constraint into a creative idea.