Brands love emojis. Dominos recently invited its US customers to order pizzas with them, while WWF used them in a fundraising campaign. And now McDonald’s has brought them to life in a cute new TV spot for the French market….

The ad shows a set of characters in various scenarios around town, expressing a range of emotions on their giant heads, before, inevitably, heading to McDonald’s. It ends with the tagline ‘Venez commes vous êtes’ (‘come as you are’). It is created by BETC Paris and French directing team We Are From LA (who also helmed Pharrell Williams’ epic Happy video).

Okay, there is something a little creepy about fully grown adults walking around with emoji heads (emojis made large are intrinsically a bit disturbing, as these French anti child-abuse posters demonstrated), but the ad’s pairing with a remixed version of the classic 80s track Video Killed The Radio Star turns it all into cartoonish fun.

The spot follows the launch of a ‘design collection‘ by McDonald’s at hip Parisian fashion store Colette earlier this year (which was based on the fast food chain’s advertising by TBWA Paris), and its upbeat, somewhat cheeky style appears to be more evidence that the brand’s marketing in France is aimed squarely at a youth audience.