DDB Sydney’s Matthew Knapp and John Downing win May’s YoungGun of the Month competition

DDB Sydney’s Matthew Knapp and John Downing have won the YoungGun of the Month competition for May with McDonald’s ‘Playland’, which had commuters arrive in Sydney’s CBD to find a McDonald’s Playland built just for them. The competition invites young creatives to upload their best work and its current judge, Colin Jeffrey, ECD at David & Goliath, USA, picks the best professional and student pieces each month.

The work is then showcased in the ‘YoungGun of the Month’ showcase.

On Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th March, adults were able to play in a way that they hadn’t since childhood. The Playland incorporated retro characters from the past such as a Hamburglar swing, Grimace cage and Fillet-O-Fish bouncers. Built entirely by hand and scaled 2:1, it made adults look and feel like kids again. It had a height of 32 feet, a weight of more than 15 tonnes, and a footprint of over 4,500 square feet.

Jeffrey says this idea works for him on many levels.

He says: “It’s fun. It’s big. It’s colourful. It’s nostalgic. Most of all, it successfully captures the spirit of McDonald’s. Seeing this brightly coloured ‘Playland’ slap bang in the middle of a dull business district just makes me happy. It I stumbled upon it, I’d probably end up having a Big Mac for lunch that day…after a few runs on that slide. I’m impressed you were able to pull this off, not an easy task. Congrats.”