Daily Lessons from Life 18 March 2013 - Singaporeans queue overnight for free Egg McMuffins

"Singaporeans queue overnight for free Egg McMuffins - The Straists Times March 18, 2013

McDonald's helped to brighten the Monday (Mar 18) morning of breakfast-goers by giving way 121,000 free Egg McMuffins. Some customers had even stayed up through the night so that they would not oversleep and miss out on the free breakfast.

The free meals were part of National Breakfast Day where the fast-food chain gave away 5 million Egg McMuffins across its 5,000 restaurants in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. By 11am, all McMuffins in Singapore were fully redeemed across 115 stores around the island.

To ensure a smooth flow of collection, queue poles and security officers were stationed outside McDonald's outlets, and members of the public had to collect coupons outside before going into the restaurants to claim their free breakfast.

The Straits Times reported that the crowd was mainly made up by students, working professionals and elderly folk."

Does it make any sense? A very successful marketing campaign or just some 'conspiracy theory'?

Lessons for me are:

1. is it worth queuing overnight for this free breakfast? probably not for most even for the students except perhaps the elderly who have no means to feed themselves. But then again, hopefully the elderly are fit enough to go through this long wait;

2. what does this phenomenon says about Singaporeans and residents of Singapore? People who are desperate or just playful or just too free or what? Did I read: 'and PROFESSIONALs'? Surely these folks are paid to do this right? LOL!!;

3. MacDonald or its PR and Advertising agencies have always impressed me with their marketing campaigns. Who can forget the frenzy of the 'Hello Kitty Toy sets' when crowds crashed through a glass door or penal while squeezing to get the COMPLETE sets of Hello Kitty toys!! Something a Master degree holder in Marketing Management cannot understand. Well, guessed that's why I am not in marketing but in performance management and human capital development arena.

Its SOOOO GOOOOOD!