READ YOUR MEAL
Fundación Semilla Verde · QSR
Challenge
Consideration — Urban working-class families in Brazil and Colombia who eat at QSR chains multiple times per week out of economic necessity, particularly mothers aged 25-45 who feel guilt about feeding their children fast food but see no affordable alternative.
Insight
In Latin American QSR culture, the 'combo' meal number system had become so ingrained that families ordered by number rather than by name — effectively erasing any consciousness of what they were actually eating. The numbered menu had turned food into an abstraction, making it psychologically impossible to consider its origins or nutritional reality.
Idea
Replace the familiar combo numbers on menus with the actual journey of the food — showing what 'Combo #1' really contained in terms of agricultural labor, animal conditions, and processing — turning the ordering moment into a moment of genuine consideration.
Execution
The NGO partnered with independent burger restaurants across São Paulo, Bogotá, and Lima to print special 'Menú Invisible' placemats and tray liners that mirrored the visual language of major QSR chains — same typography, same combo layout — but each numbered item unfolded into a visual narrative of its real supply chain. A 'Combo #3' showed the soy deforestation behind the cattle feed, the water consumed, the additives list. Radio spots mimicked drive-through ordering, with the attendant cheerfully reading back the full invisible ingredients. Guerrilla stickers resembling official nutritional labels were placed on trays in participating restaurants, prompting diners to flip them over for the hidden story behind their meal.