The Grimace Shake was a

berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...

-flavored

milkshake A milkshake (sometimes simply called a shake) is a sweet beverage made by blending milk, ice cream, and flavorings or sweeteners such as butterscotch, caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, fruit syrup, or whole fruit into a thick, sweet, cold mixture ...

that was first sold at McDonald's restaurants in the United States from June 11 to July 11, 2023, to celebrate the 52nd birthday of

Grimace Grimace may refer to: *A type of facial expression usually of disgust, disapproval, or pain *Grimace (composer), a French composer active in the mid-to-late 14th century *Grimace (character) McDonaldland is a McDonald's media franchise and the ...

, the purple, milkshake-loving character from McDonaldland. The shake was then introduced in Canada the following year, starting on May 14, 2024. A third limited run took place in the United Kingdom for one week starting on August 28, 2024, celebrating McDonald's 50th anniversary in the country. The shake gained popularity on TikTok and YouTube with the #GrimaceShake trend, where users filmed themselves drinking the shake and then finding themselves in ominous and gruesome staged situations.

Background

The character Grimace was introduced in the McDonaldland media franchise in 1971 as "Evil Grimace". His original character had four arms and would steal people's milkshakes. McDonald's soon changed the character to a purple, smiling blob with two arms and a love for milkshakes who accompanied Ronald McDonald and other benevolent characters in advertisements and commercials. Some McDonald's representatives described Grimace as an "embodiment of a milkshake or a taste bud", but his identity remains up to interpretation for many fans. McDonald's says Grimace comes from Grimace Island, along with other family members like Uncle O'Grimacey, who is known for bringing Shamrock Shakes for Saint Patrick's Day.

Product description

The Grimace Shake is a purple, berry-flavored milkshake. It is a combination of vanilla soft serve and berry flavors. The company did not disclose which flavoring had been used, and consumers reported that they tasted other flavors like

Fruity Pebbles Pebbles is a brand of breakfast cereal introduced in the United States by Post Consumer Brands on October 20, 1971 featuring characters from the animated series ''The Flintstones'' as spokestoons. The product line includes Cocoa Pebbles and Frui ...

or bubblegum. On the UK menu, it was described as containing

blueberry Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' within the genus ''Vaccinium''. ''Vaccinium'' also includes cranberries, bi ...

-flavored syrup. In the US, the shake was released as a standalone product and as part of the Grimace Birthday Meal, which consists of the shake, medium fries, and a choice of a Big Mac or 10-piece Chicken McNuggets.

Roll-out

In June 2023, McDonald's announced the release by changing their profile picture on social media platforms TikTok, Twitter, and

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

to a picture of Grimace looking at the Grimace Shake. To accompany the release of the meal, McDonald's released a Game Boy-themed browser game, '' Grimace's Birthday'', developed by Krool Toys, and other Grimace-inspired merchandise. McDonald's paid Fandom to replace the article about Grimace on the McDonald's Wiki with a promotion for its Grimace merchandise, which led to controversy. "In lieu of gifts" for Grimace, McDonald's suggested that people donate to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. From May 14, 2024, participating Canadian McDonald's locations offered the shake for a limited time after multiple responses from consumers suggesting that the shakes should be available on the nation's menu. It was then introduced to the UK as part of promotions celebrating McDonald's 50th anniversary in the country.

Critical reviews

The Grimace Shake received mixed reviews from critics. Dane Rivera of '' Uproxx'' called it the best flavor in the McDonald's milkshake lineup. '' Delish'' gave it a positive review, calling it "the sweetest berry smoothie of your life". Rechel Chapman, writing for '' Elite Daily'', was "not a fan of the flavor", which she described as "very fruity and artificial tasting". A review by '' Business Insider'' described the taste as smooth and not too sweet, but also artificial and ultimately underwhelming. Steven Luna of

Mashed.com 7Hops.com Inc., doing business as Static Media, is an American internet company established in 2012 based in Indianapolis. It operates ZergNet, a content recommendation business. ZergNet Established around 2011, ZergNet has been compared to Ou ...

said that despite the shake being "pretty" and "magical-looking," it was disappointing and a "troubling tribute to a garrulous grape-colored goofball who deserves so much better."

TikTok trend

A TikTok video trend with the

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...

#GrimaceShake gained popularity after the release of the shake. In the videos, users recorded themselves wishing Grimace a happy birthday while drinking the shake. The video would then cut to a scene of the users finding themselves in unusual positions and in strange locations, or being discovered dead while covered in the drink. The videos are staged to look like a crime scene with the shake splattered around, implying that Grimace is the assassin who is responsible for their transformation. TikTok user @thefrazmaz (Austin Frazier) was considered to have created the first instance of this trend. This trend stemmed from a similar trend involving the Whopper released to promote '' Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'' due to both products having unnatural colors. The trend spread to other products, such as '' Barbie''-themed products by Krispy Kreme and

Cold Stone Cold Stone Creamery is an American international ice cream parlor chain. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company is owned and operated by Kahala Brands. The company's main product is premium ice cream made with approximately 12–14 ...

, where consumers appear more

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

or " yassified" after consumption. As of July 12, the hashtag had over one billion views.

Response from McDonald's

McDonald's did not anticipate the Grimace Shake's popularity or its related trends. The company responded publicly to the trend with a TikTok video starring Grimace captioned: "meee pretending i don't see the grimace shake trendd." McDonald's social media director Guillaume Huin said the Grimace Shake trend was unexpected and described it as "brilliant creativity, unfiltered fun, peak absurdist

Gen Z Generation Z (or more commonly Gen Z for short), colloquially known as zoomers, is the Western demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birt ...

humor." However, at the time he felt that acknowledging the trend would be risky, as he felt that "the campaign was already wildly successful, both on a social and business standpoint, so why would we take the 'risk' to jump in?."

Sales impact

The US launch of the Grimace Shake and its resulting publicity increased McDonald's next quarter sales by 10.3% in stores that had been open for at least a year. In the April–June period of 2023, sales rose by 12%, exceeding '' The Wall Street Journal''s estimate of 9.3%. In the quarter after the Grimace Shake release, McDonald's reported $6.5 billion in sales, which beat estimates by $200 million.

Controversies

Advertising

Many speculated that the Grimace Shake trend on TikTok was an intentional advertising strategy to raise awareness of the McDonald's brand for younger audiences; its indeterminate flavor and unnatural purple color have garnered significant attention on social media platforms. However, the company has stated that it never intended for the shake to become so viral, with McDonald's social media director saying "This was a level of genius creativity and organic fun that I could never dream about or plan for—it was all from the fans, and the fans only." The virality of the trend on social media also boosted McDonald's sales as many came to McDonald's to buy the shake after seeing the trend on TikTok, resulting in stores running out of ice cream early in the day.

Fandom advertisement

Around the time of the June 2023 release, McDonald's paid Fandom to replace the Grimace page on the McDonald's Wiki with an advertisement promoting the Grimace Shake and other pieces of Grimace media, such as the video game. Nathan Steinmetz, who wrote the original Grimace article, said that the move disrupted editorial independence. Fandom staff stated that the paid advertisement from McDonald's would last for the duration of the Grimace Shake promotion, and users would not be able to edit the page.

References

External links

McDonald's official Grimace's Birthday Meal page
at Wayback Machine (archived July 5, 2023) * {{McDonald's, 2020s fads and trends Cold drinks Food and drink introduced in 2023 Ice cream drinks Internet memes introduced in 2023 McDonald's foods Milkshakes Non-alcoholic drinks Products introduced in 2023 Products and services discontinued in 2023 Products introduced in 2024 Products and services discontinued in 2024 TikTok 2023 in Internet culture