“A fascinating connection between McDonald's, Streetwear and Cactus Plant Flea Market highlights a new aspect of culture.”
McDonald's has been offering up impressive collaborations as often as it has new hamburgers lately. The fast-food chain's public image revamp efforts are aimed at reconnecting with younger fans and increasing its cultural stature. It has partnered with artists like Cardi B and BTS, as well as streetwear brands like Palace and Cactus Plant Flea Market.
This effort has been going on for the past five and a half years, according to Tariq Hassan, the restaurant's head of marketing and customer experience. Hassan points out that the connection with the customer has been lost and, as a result, the value of the slogan "I'm loving it" has been lost.
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A national listening tour helped McDonald's better understand what fans want. That led to the "Your Favorites Order" campaign, which featured celebrity favorites. The campaign, which launched in 2019 with rapper Travis Scott, was so successful that it caused a shortage of McDonald's famous Quarter Pounder.
When Hassan joined the McDonald's team, he pushed the brand to connect even more with culture. He points out that you can be iconic but not yet be culturally significant, and cites that there are many brands that are iconic but then lose their culture.
A 2020 tweet sparked an effort that McDonald's is still promoting today. The brand's account created a post that read, "One day you ordered a Happy Meal for the last time and you didn't even know it," receiving more than 24,000 likes and 5,000 retweets.
So we thought, ‘What secret is hidden beneath this?’” says Hassan. Ultimately, it’s about the loss of childhood innocence.
The result was a Happy Meal for adults in collaboration with streetwear clothing manufacturer Cactus Plant Flea Market. While the combo didn't include any new products—just a Big Mac or 10 Chicken McNuggets with a soda and fries—the Happy Meal-style packaging and included "collectible figure" featuring retro McDonald's characters like Grimace, the Hamburglar, and Birdie caused a stir.
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The packaging quickly sold out in many stores across the country, and some entrepreneurs took advantage of the opportunity, offering the plastic toys on eBay for thousands of dollars.
“This was a cultural transformation for us,” Hassan points out. “You can imagine when they launched something like Cactus Plant Flea Market and it sold out in 12 days, and the promotion was supposed to run for 30 days. We had to explain to our partners that, ‘It’s okay that they sold out.’”
Since then, McDonald's has been further expanding its presence in the streetwear space. Over the summer, it released a limited-edition clothing line with British skate brand PALACE, and this month it teamed up with New York artist Kerwin Frostfor another Happy Meal-style combo of collectibles.
McDonald's approach to these partnerships – with limited products and temporary stores – is designed to create a sense of urgency often found in the sneaker industry.
“When we developed these partnerships, the intention was to be a lot more like shoe culture than a traditional promotion,” Hassan says. “We were a little bit more like StockX than a traditional fast food restaurant.”
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So far, it seems the plan is working: collectible McNugget Buddies from the Kerwin Frost Box have already found their way onto Ebay, with some sellers asking hundreds of dollars.
At the end of this journey into the world of McDonald's and streetwear, we observe how the alternative connection between these two worlds leads to groundbreaking results. McDonald's, with its streetwear collaborations, demonstrates its ability to adapt to modern culture, offering a fresh perspective on the fast food space. In this unique combination, the company discovers a way to remain innovative and relevant, establishing itself as a global player in the contemporary cultural scene.”
Information source: https://www.cnbc.com/make-it
