A celebrity orders his usual
On 8 September 2020, McDonald's USA introduces the Travis Scott Meal at six US dollars, the first time the company has put a celebrity's name on a menu item since the Michael Jordan McJordan Special of 1992.1 The work is created by Wieden+Kennedy New York, which McDonald's appointed as its US creative agency of record in September 2019.2 The launch extends the Famous Orders platform, introduced in February 2020, into the framework that subsequently anchors the J Balvin Meal (October 2020), the BTS Meal (May 2021), the Saweetie Meal (August 2021), the Mariah Menu (December 2021) and the Cardi B & Offset Meal (February 2023).2, 3
The strategic frame
Famous Orders is, in McDonald's own framing, an asset-recognition platform rather than a celebrity-endorsement platform. The brief, developed across late 2019 and early 2020 between McDonald's CMO Morgan Flatley and Wieden+Kennedy New York creative leadership, starts from a research observation: a majority of McDonald's customers order one of three or four meals across thousands of visits.1 The behaviour is described internally as the "usual." Famous Orders treats celebrities as another customer who has a usual.2 The platform routes the brand through the customer-as-author logic rather than through the celebrity-as-spokesperson logic.
The Travis Scott Meal is built from Scott's own order: a Quarter Pounder with cheese, bacon and lettuce; a medium fries with a side of BBQ sauce; a medium Sprite.1 There is no menu invention. The meal is named after the order, not after a new product configuration. The cardboard meal carrier, the in-store signage and the McDonald's app surface the meal under Scott's Cactus Jack signature in red on the standard yellow card. The Golden Arches, the Quarter Pounder logo and the McDonald's wordmark hold their conventional positions.
The launch and the supply shock
The work breaks on 8 September 2020 with a launch commercial featuring an animated action figure version of Scott, who runs through his order and tells viewers to say "Cactus Jack sent you." The spot closes on the five-note "i'm lovin' it" hook. Out-of-home placement runs simultaneously in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta and 16 other markets. The Cactus Jack x McDonald's merchandise drop, including a Chicken McNugget body pillow, a chicken-nugget-print rug and a McNugget pendant chain, ships from Travis Scott's e-commerce platform from 8 September 2020.4, 5
The supply shock arrives within the first week. McDonald's franchisees in several markets report stock-outs on the Quarter Pounder, on the bacon component, and on the shredded lettuce that the meal requires.6 McDonald's USA issues a supply advisory on 15 September 2020.6 The Cactus Jack merchandise sells out within minutes of the e-commerce launch.5 McDonald's reports a 4.6 percent quarterly US same-store sales increase in Q3 2020 against a US fast-food category in net decline through the pandemic period.7
The platform builds
Famous Orders extends across 2020 and 2021 under the same architecture. The J Balvin Meal (October 2020) is a Big Mac, medium fries with ketchup and an Oreo McFlurry.3 The BTS Meal (26 May 2021) is a ten piece Chicken McNuggets, medium fries, medium Coke and the new Cajun and Sweet Chili dipping sauces.3 The Saweetie Meal (August 2021) introduces "Saweetie 'N Sour", the existing Sweet 'N Sour sauce renamed for the meal.3 The Mariah Menu (December 2021) runs as a 12-day pre-Christmas daily reveal.3 Each meal carries the celebrity's name on the meal carrier, an OOH execution in the home market, an app integration, and a merchandise capsule.
The BTS Meal is the platform's international peak. The launch rolls out to about 50 countries from 26 May 2021.8 Authorities in Jakarta temporarily shut 32 McDonald's locations after delivery drivers queuing for online orders breach health protocols.8 Korean and Japanese collectors trade the meal's branded brown paper bag on the secondary market at 100 to 1,500 US dollars per intact bag, depending on regional variant.
The brand reading
Famous Orders restructures the celebrity-meal contract that McDonald's first signed with Michael Jordan in 1992 and exited shortly afterwards. The 1992 McJordan was a product configuration that carried a celebrity's name. The 2020 Travis Scott Meal is a celebrity's order that carries no product configuration. The two contracts look similar on the menu card and operate on opposite logics. The 1992 contract paid for the celebrity to lend a name to the brand. The 2020 contract registers the celebrity as a customer and lets the brand pay tribute to the order.
The architecture is durable because it preserves the master brand. The Cactus Jack lockup sits on the meal carrier; the Golden Arches sit on the building. The five-note "i'm lovin' it" hook closes the broadcast spot. Wieden+Kennedy New York routes every Famous Orders execution through the same closing identity that the 2003 Heye & Partner platform installed. The work installs cultural recency on top of a 60-year brand architecture without modifying the architecture.
The platform also reframes McDonald's relationship to youth audiences. Travis Scott reaches Gen Z buyers who do not consume traditional broadcast advertising. BTS reaches international markets in which McDonald's was previously dependent on national agencies for cultural fluency. Famous Orders gives the company a single platform that scales across markets, generations and music genres without renegotiating the brand each time. The Famous Orders contract is, in the brand's own metrics, the platform that returned McDonald's to growth across the pandemic period and through the 2021-2025 inflationary years.
Source: VCU Brandcenter Youtube
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. McDonald's Corporation, "McDonald's and Iconic Global Artist Travis Scott Embark on an Unprecedented Collaborative Partnership Across Food, Fashion and Community Efforts, Launching with his Signature Order on Menus Across the U.S.", 3 September 2020, for the Travis Scott Meal running on US menus from 8 September to 4 October 2020 at 6 US dollars, for its contents, "the fresh beef Quarter Pounder with Cheese, sizzling bacon, and crisp lettuce; medium World Famous Fries with BBQ Sauce to dip, and a Sprite", for the statement "This is the first time since 1992 that a celebrity's name has been featured on the McDonald's menu", the 1992 case being Michael Jordan's, and for the job title of Morgan Flatley, McDonald's U.S. Chief Marketing Officer. The release says nothing about the brief or the customer research the body attributes to Flatley and the agency. It stands in for the McDonald's newsroom index listed in the verse, https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/news-stories.html, which returned 404 on 25 September 2026. The Ad Age launch report listed in the verse returned HTTP 403 on every attempt and could not be read, page not reachable on 25 September 2026. https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/travis-scott-embark.html and https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/mcdonalds-travis-scott-meal/2278221
2. Wieden+Kennedy, "McDonald's: The Travis Scott Meal", September 2020, and "McDonald's: Famous Orders", February 2020, both from the agency's work archive listed in the verse, together with McDonald's Corporation, "McDonald's USA Names Wieden + Kennedy New York (WKNY) Lead Creative Agency", 13 September 2019. The first case page credits Wieden+Kennedy New York with the work: "We worked with Travis Scott and McDonald's to introduce the Travis Scott Meal, the first signature meal on the menu since the McJordan nearly 30 years ago." The second dates the Famous Orders platform to February 2020, before the Travis Scott Meal, and states its premise that "everyone has a relationship with McDonald's. Every person has a McDonald's order. And your order says something about you." The word "usual" appears in neither. The McDonald's release of 13 September 2019 names WKNY lead creative agency for the U.S. business, which settles the corrected appointment date. The Creative Review piece listed in the verse for the agency-side framing returned 404 and no replacement was found on Creative Review, page not reachable on 25 September 2026. https://www.wk.com/work/mcdonalds-the-travis-scott-meal/, https://www.wk.com/work/mcdonalds-famous-orders/, https://www.wk.com/work, https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/new-creative-agency.html and https://www.creativereview.co.uk/wieden-kennedy-mcdonalds-travis-scott/
3. McDonald's Corporation, the release for each subsequent meal: "J Balvin's Famous Order is Next Up on McDonald's Menus Across the U.S.", 5 October 2020, for a Big Mac, medium World Famous Fries with ketchup and an OREO McFlurry from 5 October 2020; "McDonald's and BTS Partner to Offer the Supergroup's Favorite Order", 19 April 2021, and "The Much Anticipated McDonald's x BTS Menu Collab is Officially Here", 26 May 2021, for a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, medium World Famous Fries, a medium Coke and Sweet Chili and Cajun dipping sauces, in the U.S. from 26 May 2021; "Saweetie Taps in for a New Collab with McDonald's USA, Unveiling her Signature Order", 29 July 2021, for the Saweetie Meal from 9 August 2021, where "Saweetie 'N Sour" is "the same Sweet 'N Sour sauce you know and love, re-named in honor of the new meal"; "Mariah Carey Takes the Holidays Up an Octave with 12 Days of McDonald's Deals", 10 November 2021, for a different free item from the Mariah Menu each day from 13 to 24 December 2021 in the McDonald's app; and "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, the Cardi B & Offset Meal is Coming to a McDonald's Near You", 13 February 2023, for the Cardi B & Offset Meal from 14 February 2023, which settles the corrected date. With The Drum, "The K-pop playbook: inside McDonald's 'Famous Order' collab with BTS", 26 May 2021, which records that McDonald's "first began 'Famous Orders' back in 2020 during the Superbowl" and names Travis Scott and J Balvin as the collaborations that followed. The Drum retrospective listed in the verse returned HTTP 403 on every attempt, page not reachable on 25 September 2026. https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/j-balvins-order.html, https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/bts-meal.html, https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/bts-menu-collab-here.html, https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/McDonalds-Saweetie.html, https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/mariah-carey-holiday.html, https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/cardib-offset-meal-coming-toa-mcdonalds-nearyou.html, https://www.thedrum.com/news/2021/05/26/the-k-pop-playbook-inside-mcdonald-s-famous-order-collab-with-bts and https://www.thedrum.com/news/2021/06/15/how-mcdonalds-famous-orders-platform-rewrote-celebrity-marketing
4. Wikipedia, "Travis Scott" and "Cactus Jack Records", for Scott's September 2020 McDonald's meal being described as the first celebrity meal since the 1992 "McJordan", for the branded merchandise released alongside it, "clothing items, a rug, and a McNugget-shaped body pillow" carrying both McDonald's and Cactus Jack branding, and for Cactus Jack being the record label Scott founded on 10 January 2017. The label article does not mention McDonald's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Scott and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cactus_Jack_Records
5. XXL, Tyler Sharp, "Travis Scott Drops McDonald's Merch, Including Full-Body McNugget Pillow", 8 September 2020, and Aleia Woods, "Travis Scott Drops 37 New McDonald's Merch Items", 11 September 2020, off whitelist and used for corroboration only, for the Cactus Jack x McDonald's collection going on sale on Scott's website on the day the meal launched, for its Chicken McNugget body pillow and its Cactus Arches and Cactus Menu rugs, and for the first release being "completely sold out on the official website" by 11 September 2020. Neither piece mentions a Quarter Pounder body pillow, a nugget-print rug or a pendant chain, and neither says the drop sold out within minutes. https://www.xxlmag.com/travis-scott-mcdonalds-merch-mcnugget-pillow/ and https://www.xxlmag.com/travis-scott-new-mcdonalds-merch/
6. Restaurant Business, "As demand for Travis Scott burgers soars, some McDonald's locations run out of beef", September 2020, and Chicago Sun-Times, carrying USA TODAY's Kelly Tyko, "Travis Scott Meal at McDonald's proves to be very popular, leading to key ingredient shortage", 16 September 2020, both off whitelist and used for corroboration only, for the McDonald's memo to operators "sent Tuesday", 15 September 2020, a week after the launch, reporting that some restaurants were running short of "Quarter Pounder beef, bacon, slivered onions or shredded lettuce", for the company taking control of supply orders, and for the memo line "We've created a program that's so compelling to our customers that it's stretching our world-class supply chain." These settle the corrected advisory date. The Bloomberg report listed in the verse could not be fetched, the publisher's robots rules refusing automated access, page not reachable on 25 September 2026. https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/marketing/demand-travis-scott-burgers-soars-some-mcdonalds-locations-run-out-beef, https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/9/16/21440649/mcdonalds-travis-scott-meal-popular-ingredients-shortages-app-ordering-only-cactus-jack and https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-18/mcdonald-s-quarter-pounder-supplies-strained-by-travis-scott-meal
7. McDonald's Corporation, "McDonald's Reports Third Quarter 2020 Results", 9 November 2020, for U.S. comparable sales rising 4.6 percent in the third quarter of 2020 while global comparable sales declined 2.2 percent. The release makes no comparison with the US fast-food category. https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/Q3-2020-earnings.html
8. Wikipedia, "BTS Meal", for the launch on 26 May 2021 and the rollout to "a total of fifty countries" by late June, and for massive crowds in Indonesia forcing the temporary closure of many outlets. Variety, "BTS McDonald's Meal Sparks Frenzy and Store Closures in Indonesia", June 2021, off whitelist and used for corroboration only, for the authorities temporarily shutting 32 McDonald's locations in Jakarta for breaching health protocols as delivery drivers queued for online orders, and for the meal's release in nearly 50 countries. Adweek, Shannon Miller, "McDonald's Taps BTS for Its Next Big Celebrity-Inspired Meal", 19 April 2021, for the BTS Meal being the first global release of a McDonald's celebrity meal; it replaces the Adweek article listed in the verse, whose address now redirects to the Adweek homepage. The body follows these sources on the rollout to about 50 countries and on the 32 closures ordered by the authorities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTS_Meal, https://variety.com/2021/music/musicians/bts-mcdonalds-meal-indonesia-1234994871/, https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/mcdonalds-taps-bts-for-its-next-big-celebrity-inspired-meal/ and https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/the-bts-meal-becomes-a-global-mcdonalds-phenomenon/
