McDonald Recruits Travis Scott To Sell Burgers To The Kids
McDonald’s has teamed up with Travis Scott in a bid to get The Kids to buy its silly old burgers. Apparently it’s having a bit of a problem with that.
Now it’s hoping that the opportunity to buy a meal deal designed by Scott and bearing his Cactus Jack brand will turn things around. It’s also offering the vague promise of donating some money to charity to sweeten the deal.
The fast food chain calls all this an “unprecedented collaborative partnership across food, fashion and community efforts”, in a concerted effort to make it sound exciting. Although I’m not sure how anyone would really find that description exciting. Basically, for just under a month, starting next Tuesday, you will be able to buy Scott’s “signature” McDonald’s order.
What is that order though? Well, it is a beef quarter pounder with cheese, bacon and lettuce; medium fries with BBQ sauce; and a Sprite. It’ll only be available as an official meal option with the Cactus Jack branding attached within the US, but I reckon, if you worked really hard, you might be able to recreate that menu anywhere in the world.
“Everyone has a favourite McDonald’s meal, no matter who you are”, lies McDonald’s US Chief Marketing Officer Morgan Flatley. “Travis is a true McDonald’s fan having grown up visiting our restaurants in Houston, not to mention one of the biggest musical acts and cultural icons in the world. This is the first time in nearly 30 years we’ve introduced a superstar’s name to our menu – we’re excited to bring the Travis Scott Meal to a McDonald’s near you starting next week”.
The last superstar name to be attached to a McDonald’s meal, if you’re wondering, was Michael Jackson. Why look for such pop star endorsements again now?
Well, in an interview with Business Insider, Flatley says that people under 34 are “becoming more and more challenging for brands to reach” and are generally refusing to buy shit just because some faceless corporation tells them to. Young people like recommendations, she says. So why not get Scott to do the recommending? After all, “he just has an incredible audience”.
Back to the big press statement, and Scott himself adds: “I couldn’t be more excited to bring the Cactus Jack x McDonald’s collaboration to life. We are bringing together two iconic worlds. Including a charitable component was key for me, and I can’t wait for people to see what we have in store”.
Oh yeah, the charitable component, I nearly forgot about that. McDonald’s says that while the promotion is running from 8 Sep to 4 Oct it will also be “exploring opportunities to support charitable organisations”. I did tell you it was vague.
There’s no indication of how much money is on offer to charities, or what sort of organisations it plans to support, or, actually, any promise that it will make any donations at all. So, you can see how Scott was won over. Still, burgers, eh?