Rather than fixing their ice cream machines, fast food chain McDonald’s has collaborated with famous singers and rappers to create their own unique meals.

   The first of the recent McDonald’s celebrity meals was Travis Scott in September 2020. The Travis Scott Meal, also called the “Cactus Jack” meal or the “Travvy Patty” by fans, consisted of a quarter pounder with bacon, fries, a medium Sprite and barbecue sauce.

   Following the success of Scott’s meal, McDonald’s created three more celebrity meals. Latin artist J Balvin, Korean boyband BTS and American rapper Saweetie tried their hands at crafting unique meals for McDonald’s customers to enjoy. The J Balvin meal was made up of McDonald’s famous Big Mac without pickles, medium fries and an Oreo McFlurry, with ketchup for the fries.

   Worldwide phenomenon BTS took their chance to make a dynamite meal. With a 10-piece chicken McNuggets, large fry and a drink of the customer’s choice, the BTS meal also introduced two sauces – cajun and sweet chili. These sauces offered a spicy taste to the classic McNugget meal.

  Following BTS, rapper Saweetie tapped into her creative, culinary side. Known on Instagram for her crazy food combinations, the star rapper added a twist to her meal. While it included McDonald’s staples – four-piece chicken McNuggets, a Big Mac, medium fries, a Sprite and sweet-and-sour and barbecue sauc-es to dip – Saweetie provided eaters with ideas to “remix” their meals. Such remixes include topping the Big Mac with fries and layering the McNuggets with ketchup and fries. For the promotion, the sweet-and-sour sauce was rebranded as “Saweetie-and-sour sauce.”

   Although McDonald’s celebrity meals may seem new, they actually first started in the 1990s. NBA basketball star Michael Jordan first teamed up with the fast food chain to make his own meal. “The McJordan Special” consisted of a bacon quarter pounder, fries, barbecue sauce and a drink of the customer’s choice. This meal was only available in Chicago, Il., for a limited time.

   Jordan wasn’t the only basketball player to work with McDonald’s. In 2014, Lebron James created a special Sprite – “Sprite 6 Mix” – for the restaurant. The special drink was orange and cherry mix of Sprite served in a bottle designed to resemble James’s jersey. While the celebrity meals have become a big hit at McDonald’s, each meal is only available for a limited time. The good thing is that most of these meals can be recreated easily by adding or taking off certain toppings.

   Since McDonald’s debuted their celebrity meals, some of their competitors followed suit. In September 2021, Burger King announced a meal collaboration with Chase Hudson, also known on TikTok as Lil’ Huddy.

   McDonald’s has hit the mark with celebrity meals, as customers truly are “lovin’ it.”