MAM
McDonald’s India – North and East reassures customers of safe service in these new series of videos
As the country returns to action in Unlock 1.0 and customers looking forward to once again enjoy their favourite meals, McDonald’s India – North & East is ensuring a safe and hygienic environment for its customers and employees. Whether it is dine-in, delivery, take-out or drive-thru, McDonald’s is making sure that the customers are served their favourites with assured safety. Adhering to the government-mandated safety measures and best global practices, the company has implemented nearly 50 plus process changes to ensure the safety and wellbeing of customers and restaurant staff. Underlining this commitment, the brand has released a series of videos on its social media platforms reassuring customers of quality food and safe service as the brand resumes its operations.
Click here to view the videos: Video 1, Video 2
What's new?
– At the outlets
The company is building on the processes already in place such as thermal screening, masks and gloves for employees, frequent handwashing, and use of hand sanitizers. In addition to these, customers will experience enhanced safety measures such as having their temperatures were taken and the availability of hand sanitizers for everyone to use. To ensure everyone’s safety, customers with high temperature or flu-like symptoms or not wearing masks will not be allowed to enter the premises, as per the Government’s guidelines. As customers enter the restaurant, they will be able to see visual cues on the floor, as well as in the seating area indicating physical distancing. At the front counter, protective plexiglass shields have been introduced as an additional safety barrier for customers and staff. The company has also enhanced its sanitation protocol by introducing broad spectrum hospital-grade virucidal agent to disinfect floor, washrooms, and all frequently touched points/surfaces in the restaurants such as doorknobs/handles, POS, credit card machines, countertops, dining tables/chairs, our Ronald benches, hand dryers etc.
– Drive-Thru and Take Away
Preparation, packing and order handover is done in a completely contactless manner at the restaurant. Plexiglas sheets are installed at takeaway and drive-thru windows as a protective barrier between restaurant staff and customers. There are designated social distancing markings for all the customers while placing and collecting orders at the TA window. Hand sanitizers are made available for everyone to use.
– Contactless Delivery
The brand is ensuring contactless home deliveries and has kept social distancing markings at the delivery window for delivery riders along with their mandatory temperature check before the order is handed over. It is mandatory for riders to sanitize their hands before order pickup. All delivery bags are sealed with tamper-proof tape with the bill attached to the bag for McDelivery.
Customers can check the status of a restaurant near them on www.mcdindia.com.
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
