McDonald’s Japan accused of region locking anime ads amid American “WcDonald’s” campaign

McDonald’s kicked off an anime and manga-inspired activation across the world in February but was met with some slight backlash and now the brand has been accused of locking the advertisements to just Japan.

McDonald’s launched an anime-inspired marketing campaign around its new sauce, Savoury Chili WcDonald’s Sauce.

The promotion was limited to a few locations and also offered anime shorts and manga centered around the fast-food chain.

The WcDonald campaign was caught up in some backlash, however, as anime fans said the promotion leaned too hard into stereotypical anime fare. Now, it looks like the next set of anime ads are region-locked to Japan.

Japanese McDonald’s ads seemingly region locked

The company has not responded to the criticism or said why these new sets of ads are region-locked for viewers outside of Japan. However, the internet consensus seems to be that the company is somehow embarrassed by the negative reaction and doesn’t want the ads to bring further engagement.

“The Japanese Ad mogged America so bad they restricted it to Japan,” one post said.

Some on social media have been reposting the videos for those out of the market to see. They feature a softer anime inspiration with a cartoon women promoting McDelivery.

Whether this was a conscious move from the company, or just what was already planned for the Japanese market, remains to be seen.

This is not the first time a McDonald’s anime ad has caught on online as a Japanese campaign from 2023 brought out discourse and love from fans of the brand.

Anime crossover and inspirations are still going strong in advertising, gaming, and merchandise as brands that don’t even have active titles like Full Metal Alchemist are still popular and drawing in consumers. Anime characters were even prominently featured in the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.