The celebrity partnership that put the gold in the Golden Arches.

How to sell a 4-piece nugget meal to every kid below eight that walks through the door? Add a toy to it. Sense360, a data study firm, calculated that Happy Meals generated $10 million a day in revenue during 2017; who knew a piece of plastic was worth that much. But now that we’ve got the kids covered, how about those cranky, trend sensitive adolescents? World markets complain how hard it is to persuade ‘Gen-Z’ers- so very conscious of popularity and trends. But the right decision at the right time could be as worth as the Happy Meals.

With fashions changing, pro-organic, anti-fast food, health and weight conscious individuals, especially adolescents, spent their pocket money not on McDonalds. Although not a drastic noticeable impact, times were a-changing; action needed a-changing too. In 2020, a fast-food chain looking for a marketable pop-cultural relevance has nowhere to turn to except hip-hop. And who better than rapper, millionaire, influencer and god to the ‘hypebeasts’- Travis Scott. Under Cactus Jack, Travis’ brand name, are also his very own festival, Fortnite collab, cereal, Hot Wheels and several Nike ties. 

McDonald’s partnership with rapper Travis Scott was a massive win for the chain. This is only the second time in McDonald’s history that the franchise has tied up with a celebrity on a meal. Michael Jordan was the first in the ’90s, with the McJordan. In numbers, at the beginning of the month shares of McDonald’s hit a 52-week high; the stock valued $173.3 billion! McDonald gets the “hype approval” from their young audience, which is vital given that it is the most valuable fast-food chain on the planet. And in exchange, for Scott it’s THE deal of his career- a partnership with a brand the magnitude of McDonald’s is unheard-of. It’s a means to maneuver his aesthetics into the mainstream of marketing and physical distribution, which is practically non existent in music anymore.

Although critics claim this is simply clever marketing as it’s a near replica of a  regular Quarter Pounder meal, McDonald’s denies such accusations. “Nah, it’s also got shredded lettuce and crispy bacon because that’s how Cactus Jack likes it (straight up!),” was the bold banner on the McDs’ website. Fans were desperate to chow down on the meal- knock off or not. Supply issues for McDonald’s are rare; not even a global pandemic disrupted their supply markets. However, the Travis Scott meal caused shortage of ingredients, and therefore the management restricted the use of those ingredients in other meals, to allow the sale of the more popular meal.

The McDonald’s Chief Marketing Officer admitted that brands struggling with the GenZ group can only hope marketing can save them. I believe the use of celebrity endorsements as a marketing strategy will never be as effective as they are now with the main factor being the power of social media. 

Keeping in mind the meal was only available in America, it’s a testament to how fast Americans can change their behavior because a celebrity said so. It will be no shock that this meal will soon be an apt case study for marketing textbooks in the future.