BTS x McDonald's

McDonald's has been previously known for revealing what well-known celebrities' go-to orders are under their Famous Orders program, from the 2020 Super Bowl commercial to collaborating with artists Travis Scott and J Balvin. These collaborations boosted McDonald’s sales, with the Travis Scott order becoming a hit in the U.S. 

But then, McDonald's thought, why stop at the United States? They wanted to make an impact globally, and who better to do that with than the insanely talented and internationally loved stars, BTS!

McDonald's announcing the collaboration

The official Twitter account of McDonald’s revealed on April 19 that BTS would be the newest addition to these Famous Orders collaborations and announced the BTS Meal. The septet’s go-to meal includes a 10 piece Chicken McNuggets, medium fries, and a medium drink. McDonald's also introduced two new dipping sauces through this meal combo, inspired by South Korea’s recipes, Sweet Chili and Cajun.

BTS collaborating with McDonald's for a special meal

McDonald's also released an advertisement for the BTS Meal, featuring all the members introducing each component of the Meal. The Meal went on sale on May 26th in the U.S. and quickly became the first Famous Order in McDonald’s history to go global spanning nearly 50 countries across six continents including India by June. 

The BTS Meal by McDonald's

Merchandise:

The collaboration between BTS and McDonald's sparked some exclusive merchandise as well, in the form of the Saucy and Melting collections. Here's a video featuring some of the items from these collections! The merchandise included hoodies, keyrings, t-shirts, tote bags, socks, pajamas, slippers, and much more. Some of the t-shirts also featured sketches that were hand-drawn by the members! All this merch was made available globally through Weverse Shop. 

Hand-drawn illustrations by the BTS members which were printed on t-shirts for the Saucy Collection

Some of the items from the Sauce and Melting Collections

Response:

The decision to bring the boys in for a global impact surely paid off for  McDonald's, with the sales and in-store visits for the food chain increasing significantly after the release of the BTS Meal. Some Indonesian branches were even forced to shut down due to high number of orders and shortages in meeting them! 

But if you think the buyers were after the food, you're mistaken because the real reason for buying the meal was the packaging! The packaging consisted of the McDonald’s and BTS logos with the fandom's official color purple (yes, there is an official color for BTS and ARMY). People loved the packaging so much that they preserved it in some pretty interesting and unique ways. Here are some of these creations!

The collaboration between BTS and McDonald’s definitely proved to be a brilliant marketing campaign based on the careful analysis of the global market. It'll definitely be interesting to see how they can top the BTS effect!