Grimace, an old McDonalds character who –Except for the recent marketing blitz— possibly so unknown among younger readers that they actually have to consult a website to find out who the hell he is, has had an extensive page on the unofficial McDonalds wiki for a very long time. At least until this week, when McDonald’s paid the website owners to temporarily replace Grimace’s bio with a paid advertisement.
To say it straight away: the original biographywritten by Critic, author and digital marketer Nathan Steinmetz, aka Peopleteinis not the most important historical information on the internet. It did exactly what it needed to do, serving as an introduction to the character himself before (that was the real highlight) also delving into real-life issues like Malaysian Happy Meals, records of his public appearances, and a list of the people who while were voicing the character and wearing the purple suit.
Or it did until it looked like this instead:
At the time of writing, the site had been completely hijacked, Nathan’s research erased and replaced with reminders that people can buy Grimace food at McDonalds and play a video game based on the character. The changelog of the wiki says The exchange is temporary and will run “for the duration of this period.” [advertising] campaign,” while a small footnote at the bottom of the page simply says:
At participating McDonald’s for a limited time. While stocks last. Grimace’s birthday dinner including 10 pieces to choose from. McNuggets® or Big Mac® © 2023 McDonald’s. ADVERTISING: This site is sponsored by McDonald’s.
It doesn’t matter how important a wiki page about Grimace is or not, that’s bullshit! The idea that wiki pages, even ones about McDonalds characters, are kinda for sale undermines the whole sense of their existence as historical records (however tenuous they may be) and is a super crappy look for fandom, a corporation We last wrote a few months ago after they bought a number of popular video game websites and then promptly fired a number of people.
“I think wikis are a bastion of the old internet, where people come together to share information just for the sake of it,” Nathan tells me. “Unfortunately, this is not directly monetizable. While The Grimace is a very silly site to talk about, I think it probably sets really bad precedent that an IP owner can go to fandom or whoever and basically “suppress” user generated content ‘ and replaced by a press release .’
“I understand how dramatic it sounds to talk about the suppression of Grimace lore, but almost every pop culture company puts thousands of hours of work into these wikis,” he says, adding that he’s “not a big fan of wiki lore.” Editors” is (“Most of the time I just edit that one particular page a bit because I think it’s funny being a grimace expert”).
“But I’m an avid wiki reader and have bookmarked half a dozen. If you want an overview of Doctor Who audio drama continuity, or all of the pop culture references in an episode of Venture Bros., you absolutely need to check out a fandom wiki. I think these wikis are an incredibly important resource and it just feels gross that any company can step in and do that.”
“Also, it’s quite odd that jokes I wrote about a milkshake monster were probably read on a McDonald’s bulletin boardroom or whatever.”
