FAST-FOOD CHAINS MARKET TO POP FANS’ TASTES
It’s not uncommon for music by pop superstars to appear in commercials, but these days they come with a side of fries.
Recent months have seen a string of stars from the music world entering into partnerships with fast-food chains that sell burgers and help sell the musicians to a wider audience.
McDonald’s has had a string of successes with its “Famous Orders” program, collaborating with Travis Scott, J Balvin and, most recently, international superstar South Korean pop group BTS. The fast-food giant names a meal after the pop artist that gets promoted on social media.
These promotions transcend boundaries to reach new audiences, according to Richard T. Rodriguez, an associate professor of media and cultural studies at UC Riverside with lots of students who listen to BTS.
“It has a different kind of reach that a toy in a Happy Meal doesn’t,” he said in a phone interview.
The promotions are energizing, according to Mark Rosati, culinary director of Shake Shack, who a few weeks ago found himself in a restaurant kitchen making burgers with record producer and musician Benny Blanco.
Bonding over burgers
Rosati, who is a friend of Blanco’s, teamed with the recording artist on a nacho burger to celebrate the release of Blanco’s album “Friends Keep Secrets 2.”
The burger was available one day in late March at one location, a Shake Shack in West Hollywood, and Blanco and Rosati were there to promote it.
“We connected and bonded over the world of hamburgers and food in general. Benny knows so much about all these different types of cuisine. He has friends in the industry. His passions are so powerful,” Rosati said in a phone interview.
They met in a Shake Shack kitchen to work out the recipe for the nacho burger, which included the chain’s ranch dressing laced with crumbled Cool Ranch Doritos and scallions, plus a condiment created by Blanco.
“Benny has this really amazing salsa verde that he makes at home. He said, ‘Let me bring it in.’ ”
Although Shake Shack did a Valentine’s Day promotion with DoorDash on a Boyz II Men milkshake, Rosati said collaborations like he had with Blanco are unusual.
“I haven’t really seen too many artists who will release an album [and] at the same time want to create a menu item at a large restaurant,” he said.
The promotion gave Shake Shack the chance to raise its profile in Southern California, where it has only had a presence since 2016. Even though it was local, it netted national exposure. Blanco was a guest on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” the night before his burger went on sale and told its story as well as performed his music.
Quarter Pounders and hoodies
McDonald’s is going global with BTS, which will have its own combo meal on U.S. McDonald’s menus beginning May 26, and on six continents after that.
In “Famous Orders,” pop stars announce how they enjoy McDonald’s foods. The offerings tweak existing items on the menu. In the case of BTS, it will be Chicken McNuggets with a sweet chili sauce “inspired by popular recipes from McDonald’s South Korea,” according to a news release.
But even if the food isn’t that special, it sells. When McDonald’s launched the program with rapper Travis Scott in September, his Cactus Jack combo created a sensation, helping to boost the chain’s sales by 4.6% and earning Scott $20 million for the endorsement and merchandise, according to Forbes. It wasn’t just the Quarter Pounder with bacon that fans had an appetite for — it was the tie-in hoodies, T-shirts and other collectibles.
Another notable thing about Scott is his hip-hop persona, which is edgy for a company usually dealing in promotions like Pokemon cards.
“It’s tapping into a particular audience,” said Rodriguez. “There was some controversy around using him to advertise for McDonald’s, given the music he produces and the use of explicit and provocative language. But I think there’s a way that the marketing of these food items transcends those concerns because it taps in, again, to a particular clientele.”
Newport Beach-based Chipotle Mexican Grill announced a partnership with Shawn Mendes in January that was tied into its environmental sustainabilty campaign and included a bowl with chicken and rice, with a portion of sales going to the “wonder grants” to young activists distributed through the singer- songwriter’ s foundation.
A flock of doughnuts
There’s a reason advertisers use pop songs in commercials, according to Rodriguez.
“You hear the song repeatedly on TV, it seeps into your memory. I don’t want to psychologize this, but there’s a way in which the use of that song endlessly repeating in your head allows you to associate it with the object that’s being sold.”
Randy’s Donuts could benefit from that phenomenon.
The chain’s flagship location in Inglewood, which features a 32-foot fiberglass doughnut on the roof, is depicted in Maroon 5’s new video, “Beautiful Mistakes.”
In it, lead singer Adam Levine and guest artist Megan Thee Stallion soar in a flying convertible over landmarks in a CGI version of Southern California. When they reach Randy’s, the sky around them fills with doughnuts.
“Doughnuts fly everywhere,” said Nicolette Kelegian, co-owner of Randy’s Donuts and director of brand collaborations. “We obviously think it’s super cool.”
Randy’s Donuts did a promotion at its Inglewood location to mark the debut of the video the day before Shake Shack’s promotion with Benny Blanco.
For the occasion, Randy’s created a “Beautiful Mistakes” doughnut and sold it for one day, as Shake Shack did with the Blanco burger. The doughnut was frosted in psychedelic colors, and the chain collaborated with Maroon 5 on a psychedelic box to serve it in.
Maroon 5 reached out to Randy’s several months earlier about featuring it in the video, but the coronavirus pandemic caused the band to rethink the presentation with computer generated images, according to Kelegian.
This isn’t the first time Randy’s Donuts has been in a music video. It is featured in a clip of Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” from the 2016 film “Trolls.”
“When you think of L.A., you think of us, and it kind of becomes a natural progression,” said Kelegian.
Whether pop music collaborations continue, they’re good for the image of businesses like Randy’s Donuts, according to Kelegian.
“We try to be pop culture.”