Gaokao season is upon us, so naturally McDonald's is cashing in on the craze with a new viral marketing campaign.
A new Mickey D's app, accessible from WeChat, lets you pretend to sign up for China's much-reviled national college entrance exam. The app has you fill out and receive a virtual gaokao registration form which you can then share with your friends on WeChat.
READ MORE: The Gaokao, Explained
Want to give it a whirl? Scan the QR code below to get your form:
You'll first be asked which year you're taking the test. You can go back in time to your high school days or jump all the way forward to the year 2999.
Next you'll be taken to a page where you'll upload basic identifying information:
On the bottom of this screen, select your gender (male on the left, female on the right).
Select the camera button to either take a selfie or choose a photo of you putting your best gaokao face forward.
Yi, er, san, gaokao!
Perfect. Tap the gray button below to go to the next page, where you'll find an ID photo that looks absolutely nothing like the one you just took:
Meitu only wishes it had this filter.
Click the red button to proceed to the next page, or hit the gray one to retake the photo.
On the final page, you'll enter your name at the top (Chinese characters only) and fill out a message saying what you'd tell yourself however many years ago when you took the gaokao. Tap the gray button at the bottom of the screen to "print" out your virtual form:
Notice that the message you've written out to your teenage self has now been transformed into a message of encouragement for the 2017 gaokao takers. Awwww!
Tap the button on the left to create a new form and the one on the right one to share. (Protip: Take a screenshot if you want to share the image to your Moments).
For the record, this is what the gaokao form of the future will look like, transparent paper and all:
And comrades, here's an inspiring gaokao form from forty years ago:
And here's what Ronald McDonald's form would have looked like in 1990, after the "reform and opening up" policies allowed him to open his first restaurant on the Chinese mainland:
And because no integrated viral marketing campaign for a fast food joint would be complete without a tie-in to the actual food, you've probably seen these ads on the Metro and bus stops promoting a certain chicken breakfast sandwich and coffee combo:
(RMB6 for the combo until July 25, in case you were wondering).
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