Fast food chain McDonald's is running a mobile campaign, targeting hungry consumers on the idle screens of their mobile phones.

The campaign touches on the current economic turmoil and promotes the McDonald's dollar menu. The campaign encourages consumers to get the most for their buck.

"Ads appear within Mobile Posse's permission-based ad-supported WeatherBug weather content that appears on consumers' idle screens," said Jon Jackson, CEO of Mobile Posse, McLean, VA. "The ads are not intrusive at all."

According to Nielsen Mobile Media, weather is one of the most popular pieces of content that is consumed not only on the Web, but also on the mobile device.

The McDonald's ad runs at times of the day when people are most hungry and asks consumers whether they are thinking about food yet.

The initial ad is almost like a banner at the top of the phones idle screen and is clickable.

The ad reroutes the user to a full-screen ad, asking them to "Get the most for your buck."

"Only about 15 percent of consumers use some sort of data service, not including SMS, via their mobile phone," Mr. Jackson said. "We are helping our advertisers tap into that 85 percent that is left over."

Mobile Posse claims to be the first company to commercially roll out the delivery of permission-based content and advertising messages to the idle screens of mobile phones.

The company's approach to mobile marketing is designed to remove key stumbling blocks to mass adoption of mobile content, services and advertising by offering a non-intrusive consumer experience.

The delivery of free weather content from WeatherBug provides an incentive for consumers to opt-in for occasional promotions and offers as part of the content.

WeatherBug is a source of dynamic weather information, enabling people worldwide to make weather-related decisions.

The WeatherBug Network delivers weather information and forecasts for neighborhood-level weather.

WeatherBug is a brand of AWS Convergence Technologies Inc.

"Typically our advertisers get a click-through rate of approximately 25 percent, give or take," Mr. Jackson said. "This type of advertising allows for high engagement.

"The fact that you can deliver an ad message when people are out and about and at certain points of the day is really cool," he said "The weather content is completely free and the value exchange is that sometimes the consumer sees an advertisement.

"Weather is something that is very useful if it is targeted. With our service, people just love that it is waiting for them -- no clicks necessary and they don't need a data plan either."