McDonald’s Latest Celeb Meal Gets Backlash From Customers

McDonald's has been all about celebrity-endorsed meals in recent months. And why wouldn't it be? After testing the waters with the Travis Scott meal, the chain's first celeb menu collaboration in 30 years, last September, the chain realized they hit the motherlode. The meal was hugely successful, connecting the somewhat staid brand to a younger demographic that's long been a blind spot. The J Balvin meal followed, before the super hyped BTS meal broke foot traffic records and helped McDonald's sales surge dramatically.

It's no surprise then that the chain is continuing on with celeb meals, launching their most recent collaboration with rapper Saweetie just a few days ago. But it seems that its tried-and-true popularity formula may be losing some of its power—the Saweetie meal, although undoubtedly popular, is also receiving some backlash from customers on social media.

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For one, it seems that people are starting to be irked by the fact that once you remove the glittery promotional campaigns and the customized packaging from these celeb meals, you're essentially left with McDonald's core menu items like Big Macs, Chicken McNuggets, and fries. And while the Travis Scott, J Balvin, and BTS meals had at least one redeemable element—a jazzed-up Quarter Pounder, a free McFlurry, and new dipping sauces respectively—the Saweetie meal seems more like smoke and mirrors, according to some.

It includes a Big Mac, 4-piece Chicken McNuggets, medium fries, Sprite, and two existing dipping sauces—in other words, nothing you haven't seen and eaten at the chain a million times before. Fans have voiced their opinions on Reddit and Twitter about the fact that this meal seems to be the most underwhelming celeb meal yet.

So you telling me the Saweetie meal is nothing but a Big Mac, nuggets, fries and a sprite?😂🤣 lord the Marketing for that was A1 cause I thought it was gone be something BRAND NEW!

— Beautifully_dope (@Steve_wozowski) August 11, 2021

"Instead of playing the celebrity game, I'd rather see McDonald's put more effort into developing new products," said a review of the meal on MarketWatch.

The price isn't right, McDonald's!

But maybe the biggest complaint about the Saweetie meal is the price, which according to customers, doesn't make any sense. The meal is selling for as much as $12.69 in some restaurants (prices vary by location), so it's hard to see the value-add of buying it versus ordering each of the individual components separately.

Some customers are comparing the pricing of the Travis Scott and BTS meals to the Saweetie one, contending the previous collaborations made for better deals.

thank u bts for making ur meal so cheap <3 bc that saweetie meal price OUTRAGEOUS

— ˑ༄ (@glossyjjks) August 10, 2021

The one unique thing about this meal, however, is Saweetie's recommended customizations, aka remixes, which will have you disassembling your Big Mac and making a little fry-and-nugget nacho-like combo with sauce on top. But even that gimmick seems to be falling short.

"I tried that and a few other remixes last night. Memo to the McDonald's team: IT DOESN'T WORK," said the reviewer in MarketWatch. "Once you play with the architecture of a Big Mac, it becomes a Big Mess, with sauce, buns and veggies scattering to the four winds, making any kind of reassembly impossible."

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