The Weird Appeal of Celebrity-Endorsed Fast Food

Because I am an American who loves to perambulate, I end up passing McDonald’s on a daily basis. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with McDonald’s but it is a VERY popular fast food chain with franchises all over the world! 

They even made a movie about McDonald’s and everything! Or two movies! Possibly more!

One of the many, many times I walked past a McDonald’s I noticed that they were featuring a special meal endorsed by Korean boy band BTS. 

Now bear in mind I have never purchased a BTS album. I’m not even sure I’m familiar with any of their songs. That’s not because I think I’m somehow “too good” for BTS or that their music is somehow beneath me. 

Rather, I am a forty-five year old husband and father so BTS falls under the outsized category of “not for me.” I know nearly all of my readers are BTS “Stans” yet I must speak my truth all the same. 

Yet when I saw that McDonald’s had hooked up with BTS for a consumer product that I could purchase and consume my immediate thought was, “If BTS is going to go through all the trouble of endorsing a specific McDonald’s meal then the least I can do as a consumer is give it a shot.” 

So I ordered the BTS meal, (a 10 piece Chicken McNuggets with Cajun and Sweet Chili Sauce, Medium Fries and a Coke) and it was pretty much like any other meal you might order at McDonald’s, with the exception of the sauces, which weren’t bad and also contain the essence of BTS in every bite. 

I had the exact same response when I discovered that Travis Scott and Saweetie, two artists I could not care less about separately or collectively, had also created their own signature McDonald’s meals. 

Despite my complete indifference towards Scott and Saweetie I nevertheless found the idea of eating their signature meals weirdly seductive, even irresistible. 

I suppose that’s because these silly promotions appeal to the consumer in me as well as the inveterate fanboy who loves celebrity culture almost as much as he hates it.

You cannot write anywhere between three to five books about “Weird Al” Yankovic, as I have, and not have a love-hate relationship with consumerism, food, celebrity and the intersection of consumerism, food and celebrity. 

Perhaps THAT’s why I dig these weird meals. They inhabit the exact intersection of food, celebrity and consumerism and consequently are very much my jam. 

When I was a kid in Chicago, I predictably went wild over the very first celebrity McDonald’s meal when the fast food giant introduced a signature meal consisting of a McJordan burger (a quarter pounder with bacon and barbecue sauce) and the requisite large fries and medium soft drink. 

I was a huge Michael Jordan fan (he was very good at playing basketball; less talented at acting and baseball) so I leaped at an opportunity to experience his capitalist magic in culinary form. 

Chicago also delightfully was the home of a burger called The Beef Wennington, named after the back-up center for The Bulls. 

On a more exciting note, I recently had an opportunity to experience the ultimate in basketball/food synergy when I fulfilled a longtime dream by ordering and consuming the Shaq-a-Roni pizza from Papa John’s. 

I’d been joking about it for years but when the promotion came back around I ordered a Shaq-a-Roni and twenty minute laters it arrived at my front door in a beautiful, enormous box containing an image of Shaq eating a giant slice of Shaq-a-Roni pizza accompanied by the words, “Everyone Loves Pizza/Pizza Loves Everyone.” 

I may have ordered the Shaq-a-Roni ironically, or semi-ironically, but I enjoyed it on a deeply un-ironic level. It was everything that I was hoping for in a celebrity meal and a weirdly perfect product for Shaq to endorse. 

So get a Shaq-a-Roni before they’re gone, because I suspect you can’t resist the weird pull of celebrity fast food any more than I can.

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