McDonald’s Celebrates Its Pop Culture Dominance with Much Hyped Palace Collab

Everywhere and iconic. When McDonald’s launched the second phase of its ‘Accelerating the Arches’ strategy earlier this year, they really weren’t kidding. A new global campaign aims to reaffirm its status as the default fast food brand in the world’s collective consciousness, and boy, they’re going big.

‘As Featured In’ is a multilayered campaign that allows the burger behemoth to pull on the levers of its pop culture heritage and street wear hype culture. On August 14th, McDonald’s will be launching the ‘As Featured In’ menu, a limited edition menu that will allow fans to ‘relive the magic of their favourite characters an artists’. The menu features items previously featured in major pop culture properties, most notably  the newly-branded Sweet 'N’ Sour Sauce – inspired by McDonald's appearance in the upcoming second season of Marvel Studios' show ‘Loki’.

"It's not only our real-life fans who have a go-to order... for decades our favourite movie and TV characters have, too," said Morgan Flatley, global chief marketing officer and head of new business ventures at McDonald's. "The ‘As Featured In’ Meal is our biggest Famous Order yet, celebrating the most memorable McDonald's references across the world of entertainment."

The campaign surrounding the new menu launch includes distinctive social media clips and trailers, a Snapchat augmented reality experience that people can access using the ‘Loki’ Sweet ‘N’ Sour Sauce pots and an immersive experience at a Brooklyn McDonald’s outlet that will transport customers back to 1982 from August 30th onwards.

But perhaps the most hyped up element of the campaign is a collaboration with London-based skatewear giant, Palace.  From August 14th, style-conscious fans who purchase from the ‘As Featured In’ menu will have access to a special Palace McDonald’s line of merch, which they can access by scanning the food’s packaging. Palace will also take over McDonald’s’ first ever US outlet, in Downey California, on August 18th.

The ambition of the campaign is not to be underestimated. Speaking on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), Guillaume Huin, McDonald’s’ social media director said, “It is McDonald's’ biggest campaign to date, available in 100 markets, including 24 timely and timeless global IPs. The idea is simple: ‘everyone has a McDonald's order, even in the fictional world’. We saw the idea for the first time on March 2nd, 2023. It's been a wild ride.”

The breadth and diversity of shows and movies featured is a statement in and of itself as McDonald’s seeks to demonstrate its brand transcends subcultures. There are iconic American comedies like ‘Coming to America’ and the American ‘Office’, retro faves like ‘Space Jam’, sci-fi icons like 'The Fifth Element', anime like ‘The Devil is a Part Timer!’ and even arthouse fayre such as Wong Kar Wai’s ‘Fallen Angels’.

It’s not the first time that McDonald’s has had a pop culture moment in recent years. In 2017, an episode of ‘Rick and Morty’, The Rickshank Redemption, mentioned McDonald’s’ 1998 limited edition Szechuan Sauce, a tie-in to Disney’s ‘Mulan’ movie. As the internet meme machine cranked on, McDonald’s decided to re-release the sauce in February 2018. That led to an unexpected glut of demand and intense fan reaction that seemed to catch McDonald’s by surprise. Whether or not ‘Rick and Morty’ will make an appearance in this campaign is yet to be seen, given the controversies surrounding co-creator Justin Roiland. But the parallels between the organic ‘Rick and Morty’ moment and this more constructed campaign are striking.

It’s also not the first time a fast food brand has embraced the world of streetwear drops. Pizza delivery brand Papa Johns dropped its new delivery driver uniform design on Depop in 2021 and Hardee’s Arabia, with agency And Us, created a streetwear collection to reboot the Mushroom ‘N’ Swiss sauce for a new generation. 

However, as the brand gears up for its true launch on the 14th, Guillaume teases that there's much more in store for McDonald's munchers and pop culture aficionados alike. "It's been an absolute honor exchanging with so many fandoms today. Loki communities, Wong-Kar Wai fans, Michael Scott aficionados, Sadao stans, Palace enthusiast and McDowells customers and so many more. We might have one or two other surprises."