Two friends from Texas were able to sneak a large picture of themselves onto the wall of a McDonald’s restaurant, where it went undetected for nearly two months.

Jevh Maravilla detailed the unusual caper in a YouTube video entitled “We Became McDonald’s Poster Models,” which explained how he and friend Christian Toledo were able to pull it off.

Maravilla said he noticed that there were several photos on the Houston-area restaurant’s walls of people smiling while consuming McDonald’s products. He said the pictures contained “literally no Asians,” and decided he and Toledo should rectify that situation.

“All races deserve recognition, and I guess I did my part,” he said.

They found a “natural environment” that looked similar to the locations used for the existing photos, and took a picture similar to the ones they had seen inside the restaurant. They edited the photo – adding more fries to the carton Maravilla was holding, as well as the chain’s logo and “I’m lovin’ it” slogan – and ordered a poster-size version. That was the easy part.

The poster was delivered a week later, and Maravilla and Toledo set their sights on figuring out how to get it onto a wall at McDonald’s without being noticed. The best way to do this, they figured, was for Maravilla to disguise himself as a McDonald’s employee.

Their plan involved purchasing a McDonald’s golf shirt at a thrift store for US$5.99. Maravilla also created a fake security badge identifying himself as a “regional interior coordinator” by the name of Jeff Bergara.

“Sounds legit,” he said in the video.

One mid-July night, accompanied by two other friends, Maravilla and Toledo put their plan in motion. The group brought the poster into the restaurant and leaned it against a wall – backwards, so as not to attract attention.

Once they were sure nobody was watching, Maravilla took off his jacket to reveal his uniform and badge, complete with a tie and walkie-talkie. He then instructed his friends on where to affix the picture to the wall – capturing the whole thing on video.

“Left, left, left, left, left, left left,” he said. “Up, up, up, up, up. Cassandra, up. There. Perfect.”

The friends were able to get out of the restaurant without anyone realizing what they had done. More surprising to Maravilla was that more than seven weeks later, the picture remained in place.

“I really hope they’ll never take it down,” he said in the video.

Maravilla’s prank prompted at least one other person to go public with a story of similar hijinks.

Brynn Shuller of Burbank, Calif., tweeted that she and her friends slipped photos of themselves into picture frames for sale at a Walmart. The pictures were left alone for several months until the store received a new shipment of picture frames, she said.

Me and some friends did that at our local Walmart! Then we took a pic with our pic in the frame and put that in another frame! They were there for a good 3 or 4 months until they got a new batch of frames in. pic.twitter.com/SUKsuD1OXi — Brynn Shuller (@BrynnShuller) September 3, 2018



