according to a McDonald’s Marketing Promotion, it’s Grimace the furry purple mascot’s birthday. The main trick (or Grimmick?) is to introduce a new purple shake as part of the limited edition “Grimace’s birthday dinner.” But social media users have applauded the event, calling Grimace a proud icon and a loved one. Some TikTokers have appeared in cursed cosplay to attend the Grimace Birthday Meal, which was released on June 12th.
McDonald’s marketing has come up with some other imaginative ways to celebrate the mascot, including: hands over his Instagram account to Grimaceand the release of a Game Boy Color game (in collaboration with Krool Toys) called Grimace’s birthday, which you can play here. There are also Grimace merch, Naturally. This level of bombast is entertaining, as it’s not particularly clear why that mid-June span of days counts as Grimace’s birthday – the press release doesn’t mention that Grimace was actually born (I don’t want to know what that would mean). (He was originally a too evil thief, similar to the hamburglar
People were naturally curious about how a Grimace shake tasted. What taste does a purple triangle monster with googly eyes have? Who could actually be a taste bud?? Turns out it has “berry flavor.” A reporter compared the taste of the shake to muesli milk.
TikTokers have a good time, order the Grimace birthday meal, don cursed cosplays and Vaping in celebration of “Mother Grimace”.
But a number of fans were genuinely excited and wowed the mascot with fan art and other…interesting…works. Do we like him because McDonald’s completely bypassed the corporate ring of hell and is now in storage? Or is Grimace a queer icon now because his birthday falls dur ing Pride Month, when so many corporations are throwing their brands upside down, and because it’s funny politicizing mascots for such a big, sprawling fast-food chain? Who is to say that?
The idea between Grimace and the Hamburglar dating is very cute though. And while Grimace’s pronouns have been “he/him” over the years, historically it was Women have put on the mascot suit
Grimace is just out there with not a single thought. This is the real birthday treat. According to the McDonald’s fan wiki, Grimace “sometimes spends long periods without speaking; When he speaks, he’s known for saying “duh” before every sentence.”
But who or what Is grimace, really? Apparently not even McDonald’s knows. A press release accompanying the Grimace celebrations said, “Our timeless bestie has become a fan favorite, known for his signature fluffy purple look, friendly and playful personality, love of shakes and of course — his ambiguous nature.” What exactly is Grimace? Maybe we’ll never know…”
Here’s the real highlight, though: Someone made a spoof commercial of what a real Grimace burger would look like, made with… real Grimace meat. Every single patty is covered in wavy fur, resulting in an extremely tasty looking (I lie) burger. However, if you really love Grimace, I would recommend you not to watch this movie.
As a self-education project during lockdown, I wanted to see if I could emulate a brand’s advertising style
Anyway I did this, happy birthday, grimace or whatever pic.twitter.com/2MHjEtgsEL
— Richard Parry (@_RichardParry_) June 13, 2023
Grimace, which got fan art in June, wasn’t on my bingo card this year, but McDonald’s has had a lot of traction with their Happy Meal toys over the past few years, so I probably shouldn’t be surprised. In 2021, Pokémon Happy Meal toys became a desirable commodity and hit the resale market. Last October, the company released a line of Happy Meal toys in partnership with Flea market for cactus plants – clearly aimed at adults – which was also in high demand on the resale market.
As Polygon culture writer Ana Diaz predicted at the time, “It makes sense that the company’s leadership would seek to recapture audiences that were once young and are now older.” aimed at both children and adults.” Do the birthday milkshake, Game Boy Color game and merch count? I think so.
