Hamburgers inspired McDonald's first restaurant billboard campaign in 1957.
The campaign used the “Look for the Golden Arches” idea to connect the restaurant’s most recognizable food with its most recognizable visual feature. Billboards helped McDonald's reach drivers before they arrived at a restaurant, making the arches both a logo and a roadside navigational sign.
Hamburgers were central to the McDonald's menu and identity from the company’s early years. The McDonald brothers’ streamlined restaurant system was built around quickly prepared hamburgers, fries, and beverages, but the hamburger was the clearest symbol of the business.
This fact is easy to mix up with later product-centered promotions. McDonald's eventually advertised individual products such as the Big Mac and Chicken McNuggets, but the 1957 billboard campaign focused on the broader hamburger-and-arches identity.