McDonald's attempts to leverage meme economy for their Twitter advertising. Uses long dead viral craze. Sounds a bit like something from the Bad Luck Brian series? Well, it's fitting because that's exactly the meme they used. It's been over 3 years since the Washington Post caught up with Kyle Craven in order to see what things were like after the viral fame fades. Several years since his online infamy had faded enough to merit a "where are they now" profile McDonald's decided it would be a good idea to try and use "meme culture" to show how hip they were, earning themselves at least plenty of free promotion shared at the /r/hellofellowkids subreddit.
https://thegoldwater.com/news/27773-Buffalo-Wild-Wings-Apologizes-For-Racist-Tweets
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> <a href="https://t.co/GhPAyriYdm">pic.twitter.com/GhPAyriYdm</a></p>— Half-Stan (@StanHalf) <a href="https://twitter.com/StanHalf/status/1050243051329912832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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To be fair, this is likely not even the least wise decision they've made in the past year. McDonald's Denmark this June tweeted: "Oh no! It's so sad what happened to @xxxtentacion! Click here to win a free Big Mac and LARGE DRINK!"
Needless to say, the internet was far from amused. Choice responses from the Twitterati included complaints about McDonald's scraping the bottom of the barrel.
"This meme is as fresh as your food."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This meme is as fresh as your food</p>— Alton (@AltonChaneyMidi) <a href="https://twitter.com/AltonChaneyMidi/status/1050130686961541120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The Wendy's Twitter account is known for having a fairly savvy since of humor on the internet. When tagged in a tweet asking where Wendy's was at, their response was as short and sweet: "Oh, we're in 2018."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oh, we’re in 2018.</p>— Wendy's (@Wendys) <a href="https://twitter.com/Wendys/status/1050416559905300480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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"So you've decided to tweet this, Here's why you shouldn't have."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> <a href="https://t.co/6JZ0F24ZUJ">pic.twitter.com/6JZ0F24ZUJ</a></p>— Kaylan Whittaker (@WhittakerKaylan) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhittakerKaylan/status/1050349667295395840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
why does this exist and who is the social media manager i want to fire them
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">why does this exist and who is the social media manager i want to fire them</p>— Harry Animations (@HarryCantDraw) <a href="https://twitter.com/HarryCantDraw/status/1050479428747309056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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On the behalf of the internet as a whole, Please just stick to making the whole world fat, leave the memes to the internet and not for advertising.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">On the behalf of the internet as a whole,<br><br>Please just stick to making the whole world fat, leave the memes to the internet and not for advertising.</p>— Ben J. Creek III (@CreekClub360) <a href="https://twitter.com/CreekClub360/status/1050409114042585088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> <a href="https://t.co/uC5GWzW67J">pic.twitter.com/uC5GWzW67J</a></p>— Pablo (@TheLastLight1) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheLastLight1/status/1050091845626339329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> <a href="https://t.co/uC5GWzW67J">pic.twitter.com/uC5GWzW67J</a></p>— Pablo (@TheLastLight1) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheLastLight1/status/1050091845626339329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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"This is the key way dissuade people from eating fast food in general: Dead normie memes"
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is the key way dissuade people from eating fast food in general: Dead normie memes</p>— 🎃💀🍂Dennis the Dark Lord🍂💀🎃 (@DennisTheImp) <a href="https://twitter.com/DennisTheImp/status/1050280948410015745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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A shame McDonald's likely won't be able to claim that they were hacked, as they did last March when their official <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/16/mcdonalds-twitter-account-appears-to-have-been-hacked-posts-anti-trump-tweet.html">Twitter account blasted Donald Trump</a> as a "disgusting excuse of a President" before going on to complain about his "small hands" and pine for the return of Barack Obama.
https://thegoldwater.com/news/19258-Subway-Official-Sandwich-Of-The-Alt-Right
Multiple complaints thus far about McDonald's use (or abuse?) of meme culture and attempt to appropriate a dead meme to appeal to youth culture led some to tell Mickey D's they should fire their social media manager. Meanwhile, no word yet on whether the Million Dollar Extreme fan who was operating the Subway Twitter account was fired for coming out as a Sam Hyde fan or given a promotion.
If it's any sign how well the campaign is going, a commercial shared on YouTube by McDonald's earlier this month features Kyle AKA "Bad Luck Brian." If it's any sign of how consumers responded, comments have been disabled for this and other "Trick. Treat. Win!" ads.
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In the event that McDonald's does actually come to their senses and deletes the tweet and ends their "Bad Luck Brian" ad campaign we've <a href="http://archive.is/jJfrS">archived the original tweet</a> so you can "savor the flavor" for years to come.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Even beardos aren't safe from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ScumbagSteve?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ScumbagSteve</a>. 😂😂😂 <a href="https://t.co/5BL3ChrXt4">https://t.co/5BL3ChrXt4</a> <a href="https://t.co/I9yYfwZ7UH">pic.twitter.com/I9yYfwZ7UH</a></p>— Beardilizer (@Beardilizer) <a href="https://twitter.com/Beardilizer/status/911009657984077832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Meanwhile, I'm just going to be sitting back waiting on Scumbag Steve's Burger King deal.
Twitter: #FAIL #mcdonalds #badluckbrian
Never heard of meme`s nor knew anything about them until I happened upon #Q & #Qanon in some #MAGA post.
Of course my kids knew about meme`s when I asked them.
Though come to think of it I guess I did… I just never knew the funny pic`s with text`s were all called or defined as meme`s.