McDonald’s and The Lost Ring As an official sponsor of
the 2008 Beijing Olympics, McDonald’s created a multipronged marketing effort. Looking to
engage young adults immune to traditional media ploys, McDonald’s, its marketing agency
AKQA, and game developer Jane McGonigal created a global, multilingual alternate-reality
game (ARG) called The Lost Ring. The Web-based game centered around Ariadne, a fictional
amnesiac female Olympic athlete from a parallel universe, and united players around the world in
an online quest to recover ancient Olympic secrets. Discreetly sponsored by McDonald’s, the game
began with 50 gaming bloggers receiving enigmatic packages on February 29, 2008 (Leap Day). The
packages included an Olympic-themed poster from 1920 and other teasers with a clue to
TheLostRing.com. Almost 3 million people in more than 100 countries eventually played the game,
which ended August 24, 2008, the last day of the Olympics. The game received the Grand Prize in
Adweek’s 2008 Buzz Awards