In celebration of their 105th birthday, A&W Restaurants wanted to give back to America’s greatest—but often overlooked—generation. So to help them honor their Boomer fan base while simultaneously getting new audiences talking, we introduced an unprecedented permanent promotion—offering anyone 100 or older free Root Beer Floats…for life.

The “Burgers, Floats, & Then Some” campaign celebrates the dual appeal of A&W Restaurants—its iconic All American Food offerings such as all-beef burgers and Made Fresh Root Beer floats, and also the intangible joy of sharing those classic menu items with friends and family. The brand’s first nationwide campaign coincided with refreshed packaging that modernized the brand’s retro roots.

In the 1980s, A&W tried to compete with McSomebody’s Quarter Pounder by offering a beefier 1/3 lb. burger at the same price. Since 4 is bigger than 3, math-challenged Americans assumed the 1/4 lb. option was bigger, and the whole experiment went down in history as a huge marketing fail that the internet was still buzzing about nearly 40 years later. Rather than run from the bad publicity and brutal memes, we embraced the mistake and helped A&W relaunch the campaign with a rebranded burger so massive and a message so clear that no one in their right mind could think it was smaller than a puny Quarter Pounder.