In a world where nothing seems to go right, let us take a moment to stop and be thankful for what is going right in 2020. In a time of immense pain and suffering, there is one man who has brought the world together in a celebration of vapid consumerism, making small adjustments to age-old products that threaten to collapse the market. It hasn’t even been a whole month yet, and it feels like Travis Scott is bound for world domination, replacing Ronald McDonald as their beloved spokesman and turning his record label, Cactus Jack, into… something? Probably Grimace. I don’t even know what that purple dude did, but it’s probably something very Cactus Jack-y.
While I leave it open to interpretation, Sales Rack exists to embrace the highs and lows of marketing, establishing a side of the culture that is fundamental to our DNA. It’s the way you’d think a Pepsi could stop police brutality, or that old ladies really cared that much about beef. As much as I know this is all pointless limited time offers, there is something fascinating about their place in American culture, reflecting on how you can sell an idea for momentary happiness, delivering on really only half of those expectations. There’s a reason I still think of Pepsi Blue even if it probably wasn’t that good. They make me care.
And what’s insane is the way that Travis Scott has managed to make the world care about him. Prior to August 2020, I couldn’t tell you a single thing about him. At best, I now know him as the rapper who did a song for Tenet (2020). It aired during a Friday NBA game and I thought it was fine. Similarly, I discovered the first trailer for The Travis Scott Burger during a game. By the following day, Twitter was going on about how crazy this was. The last time that there was a celebrity crossover, it was for Michael Jordan in the 90s. Think about that. Hundreds of artists have come and gone in that time, and nobody has matched the marketing capabilities for fast food like Mike. Does that make Scott the modern Jordan? If only in this story.
The advertisement itself is wonky in a memorable way. There’s Scott introducing the burger and giving some emotional plea for people to like it. Ever since he was a kid in Houston, TX, he would go to McDonald’s and order a burger this way. As a toy who wandered around adventurously across a tray, he explored the various components of his masterpiece, highlighting the burger that hung behind him like Mt. Kilimanjaro, the fries like his Statue of Liberty. Then he would slam his straw into the soda, like King Arthur. He made something so unsexy seem triumphant, so necessary for our lives. It wasn’t just that we needed the BURGER. No, we needed the fries and a Sprite. The Travis Scott Meal is a Sprite, and don’t you forget it.
The lead-up seemed like a borderline parody full of existential questions. Why Travis Scott? As a fellow old person, I have no idea who he is and am not sure that he’s able to shift Earth off of its axis. And yet, this multibillion-dollar organization thinks it’s a good idea. By September 8, the sale was on its way. The one thing that nobody could’ve predicted was how, in just two weeks, how big of a phenomenon it would be, giving us the stupid marketing joy we desperately needed during a pandemic. Everything about this is wonderfully absurd on top of the curiosity to just try a new burger.
What goes into a Travis Scott Burger? According to the McDonald’s website, it’s a bit straightforward, like ordering off a secret menu. Think of going to In N Out and ordering “animal style” or a “four by four.” If you know the code, those terms will be very valuable to you. But for Scott, I assume the secret menu he’s referencing was for a Quarter Pounder with bacon and lettuce. From what I gather… that’s it. True, bacon does a burger wonders but keep that in mind when you’re trying to follow the sensation in the works, the drive for people to raise McDonald’s business higher than it had in eons.
I’ll start with the early days when it was a new phenomenon. With promotional artwork reminiscent of Scott’s own music brand, there was encouragement for consumers to show up and say things like “Cactus Jack sent me.” There were also pleas to refer to the burger as “it’s lit” (or great). However, that wasn’t enough for consumers who wanted to turn this into a frenzy. While everyone ran to YouTube to post their reviews, including one who proudly declared that he ate his the fastest, there were others working on an even more devious scheme. You see, Scott couldn’t make his own meme. He had to have others do it for him.
According to Urban Dictionary’s definition of The Travis Scott Burger, it’s the story of a Fortnite guy who got a burger. Claiming that “Travis Scott fucked me,” he proceeds to have a conversation at the drive-thru window before blasting his song “Sicko Mode,” to which the employee says “So the Travis Scott Burger.” It’s an absurd moment that went viral. As someone who gained fame by putting on concerts through the video game, it makes sense that this trend ties back to Fortnite.
However, it would quickly spread throughout the internet into TikTok, where people would arrive at the window performing a similar exchange. When asked what they want, the driver will say “You know why I’m here” before blasting “Sicko Mode.” According to GQ, who contacted 66 restaurants over this promotion, they are enthused by its success and many have likely heard “Sicko Mode” every 15 minutes for the past week. It’s even lead many to argue that Travis Scott just made McDonald’s stock go into “Sicko Mode.” As an old person, I don’t know what that means, but I’m sure it’s lit.
There have even been counter-memes on TikTok of people going to various establishments and doing the same scheme. One of the most popular involves a man playing the song loudly and, unprompted, the employee saying “Sir, this is Diary Queen.” If nothing shows how far-reaching this simple burger venture has gone, it’s the fact that everyone knows what’s going on. For the first time since the “I’m Lovin’ It” song was written, McDonald’s has become synonymous with a song that puts smiles on people’s faces and cash into their pockets.
Could you imagine if the story stopped there? Oh sure, it’s the preferred result of marketing, but there’s so much more that could make a burger with two (TWO!) extra ingredients into the second coming of Ray Kroc. Scott’s genius as a marketer had to extend beyond people just ordering a burger, right?
Well, if you can figure out how to navigate Travis Scott’s merchandise store, you’ll find that his Cactus Jack x McDonald’s merch is one of the most shamelessly awesome reminders of this time in history. With 59 items to commemorate this occasion, you have the chance to buy basketballs, pajamas, sweatshirts, basketball jerseys, lunch boxes cardboard cutouts of Scott, food trays, and… for whatever reason, a $90 “Nugget Body Pillow.” Yes, this 36-inch pillow is set to ship in 9-12 weeks, and you can have one. If you’ve ever wanted to sleep on a nugget, now’s your chance. And, the best part? There are rumors that even more is on the way.
Whether that’s in reference to burgers or merchandise, it’s clear that this event refuses to go gently into that good night. Would anything in sicko mode think of doing that? I wish that I could stop the story at body pillows, but that would be to do a disservice to the one part of this story that solidifies it as an event of the year, something that I’m sure to remind people of every time they ask what crazy marketing schemes actually deserves to be remembered.
In any other year, the news of Travis Scott doing an in-person event wouldn’t be seen as something controversial. He would just show up, throwing fries out of a cannon as his adoring fans open their mouths, feeling the oil roll down their throats. But, as a reminder to future generations, September 16, 2020, was not a date where the Coronavirus mysteriously disappeared. In fact, we were living in a country with over 200,000 deaths. The idea of going into large crowds would potentially put you in harm’s way, risking infection.
Then again, if you were to ask Scott about things, he’d tell you that there was no intention of making this a super-spreader event. From his Instagram account, he reported that he was going to a McDonald’s in Downey, CA. It was supposed to be low-key but instead drew out 500 fans to witness the action, to see him hand out burgers. As he popped out of his car, he yelled for his crew to hand him a shirt, itself donned in a Cactus Jack/McDonald’s crossover image. Of course, everyone was excited to see him, and soon everyone was given a burger.
There was a catch to all of this. On top of being a super-spreader event, it turned out that Scott didn’t have any permits. He didn’t have any rights for the giant gathering. He claimed that he didn’t advertise it as such in order to avoid this from happening. But when you have 32.8 million followers on Instagram, even getting 5% of your audience’s attention is going to block traffic. Not only that, but he didn’t even get permission to film there. These two permit fines resulted in every person there receiving a fine of $100.
According to the Downey Police Department via Twitter:
“Today’s Travis Scott appearance at McDonald’s was neither approved nor permitted by the City of Downey. DPD units were dispatched in response to a large crowd gathered and focused on traffic and pedestrian safety concerns until the crowd dispersed. No injuries were reported.”
To Scott’s credit, he did promise to pay for everyone’s fines. What he lacks in foresight he more than makes up for financial compassion. It is likely that provided these people to recover from any potential illness, they will have quite the story for their children in a decade. They’ll wonder what life was like in 2020, and they will hold their head high and say that they got to see Travis Scott under the golden arches. A burger had never tasted sweeter. Life had never been better than watching him yell for somebody to give him a shirt.
The burger is currently scheduled to run through October 4, and by all accounts, it’s already a big success. While I can’t speak for the sales of the merchandise, I can proudly say that reports began popping up this past weekend that suggested a shortage of burgers at various locations due to an uprise in sales. It hasn’t even been two weeks, and it already feels like the biggest thing that McDonald’s has done. Sure, it’s nowhere near as interesting as their international burgers from 2019, but sometimes you just want a burger with bacon and lettuce and, when the drive to a better fast food joint is too far away, you settle for one with a simple and shameless shingle as this… and all for a low, low price of $6.
I’m not going to lie. It’s not the most interesting-sounding burger that’s been advertised in the past month. Honestly, whatever Wendy’s is doing with pretzel buns and their Bacon Pub Cheeseburger sounds much more appealing. Then again, it’s not being advertised with anyone attached. Can you imagine if it was The Nick Nolte Burger? I’m sure it would sell double. Then again, that’s what makes The Travis Scott Burger genius. It’s not the best new food out there, or even the most creative, and yet it’s the one that has continued to raise attention and started memes. It may not have a pretzel bun, but it has the world’s attention. Sometimes that’s all we need to be a phenomenon. It’ll take a while for anyone to think of something as cheap and uninspired to be as big of a hit as this. Even then, it’s doubtful that it will land in quite the same way. That’s what makes this moment special. In a time where everything is going wrong, there’s a burger to remind us of how wonderfully absurd this world can truly be.
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