How McDonald’s Turned Grimace Into TikTok Gold

Grimace, the fuzzy, purple McDonald’s mascot, turned 52 years old on June 12. The fast-food company has spun this non-milestone birthday into its biggest celebration of the year, and in turn made Grimace one of summer’s biggest social-media stars.

TikTok is teeming with viral videos where customers try the Grimace Milkshake, a berry-flavored beverage concocted by McDonald’s as part of a special Grimace Meal. But there’s a twist: Young people are pretending to die in violent and strange ways at the hands of the drink—a play on Grimace’s villainous origin story. 

The company had been going for nostalgia with the campaign, according to Jennifer “JJ” Healan, vice president of marketing, brand, content and culture for McDonald’s in the U.S. “Our fans truly brought their version of Grimace’s birthday through the lens of the shake in really unexpected and fun ways, and so we’re here for it,” she said.

Since the “Grimace’s Birthday” campaign was launched last month, videos with the hashtag #grimaceshake have been viewed more than 1.7 billion times, according to TikTok. Posts labeled with the hashtag #grimace have been viewed 1.9 billion times.

One of the earliest TikTok posts in this trend came from Austin Frazier, a 28-year-old social media manager in Knoxville, Tenn. On June 13, he posted a video of himself passed out in a pool of melted milkshake after taking his first sip. He was inspired after seeing similar videos of reactions to Burger King’s “Spider-Verse” Whopper burger, whose bright-red bun promoted the film “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” When he first posted the video, it only hit a few thousand views after the first day. Two weeks later, it jumped into the millions.

Frazier’s video came together just a few hours after he thought of it, he said, and his wife poured the milkshake over his face as he lay on the floor that evening. 

“Anyone with a McDonald’s near them, which is literally everyone, could participate in this trend,” Frazier said.

New York-based content creator Haley Kalil, 30, put a cinematic spin on the trend with her friend and fellow content creator Max Goodrich, 30. Her elaborate video features Goodrich running from Kalil after she becomes possessed by a few sips of the shake. That video has been viewed almost 30 million times.

“As a content creator, you learn the culture of the app really quickly, and you can see a viral trend happening in the midst of it happening,” Kalil said.

Bolstered by the company’s own Grimace-related marketing—bus stop and television ads, as well as birthday messages on all its packaging—demand for the Grimace Meal, which includes 10 chicken nuggets or a Big Mac with fries and a purple shake, surged. Since its launch June 12, millions of Grimace Shakes have been sold, according to the company.

Some customers said the prevalence of the TikTok trend actually repelled them from tasting the shake themselves.

“I wanted to try the shake initially,” Ellie Guijosa, 27, said as she cleaned her hands with a napkin in a San Francisco McDonald’s. But when she saw the videos of people faking their deaths after drinking the shake, she thought they were making a joke about the shake being gross.

Though the Grimace Meal campaign is officially over, you may still be able to get your hands on the purple berry-flavored shake until supplies run out.

Or you could try making one at home. Kat Lieu, a food writer based in Renton, Wash., came up with her own version of the Grimace shake the day after seeing her first video of the viral trend. Hers has real blueberries, a little ube flavoring and some sprinkles. It was her website’s number one recipe for several days after she published it June 29, she said.

“People who tried it said they loved it,” Lieu said. “Some said they mixed in Fruity Pebbles.”

“It still gets thousands of clicks a day,” she added.

Write to Ashley Wong at [email protected] and Lindsey Choo at [email protected]