Billboard advertises salads with live plants

When McDonald’s Corp., headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., wanted to advertise the freshness of its salads, it worked with advertising agency Leo Burnett to come up with something unique. The result was a billboard using live lettuce plants.

Burnett worked with University of Illinois horticulturist Greg Pierceall, who used a vertical growing system to create the sign. The plants growing on the billboard are a blend of mesclun greens that are used in McDonald’s salads. The plants were supplied by local grower Good Earth Greenhouses and Garden Center in Lockport. The Brickman Group was hired to maintain the billboard after it was in planted.

Pierceall said the shelf life of the billboard is unlimited depending on weather conditions. Burnett wanted the billboard installed for summer, but Pierceall explained since lettuce is a cool-season crop it wouldn’t be successful during summer in Chicago. He said the plants’ seasonal nature defined the presentation timing and its length.

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For more: Greg Pierceall, University of Illinois, Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, (217) 722-2109; pierceal@uiuc.edu; www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news4161.html.