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K-Pop Group BTS And McDonald's Launch Exclusive Meal And Clothing Line
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It's the age of the celebrity McDonald's collaboration.
Travis Scott kicked off the trend with his Quarter Pounder meal with cheese, bacon, lettuce, fries and barbecue sauce. The "Travis Scott Meal" – the first McDonald's celebrity menu collaboration since Michael Jordan's McJordan Special – was so popular that some McDonald's ran low on ingredients. J. Balvin jumped on the trend a month later with his go-to meal of a Big Mac without the pickles, an Oreo McFlurry and french fries with ketchup.
Now, the beloved K-pop boy group BTS is joining in.
The McDonald's collaboration is just the latest in the boys' success. In 2017, they were named the most Tweeted-about celebrities of 2017. In 2018, they made history as the first K-pop group to have an album at No. 1 on Billboard. Last year the band broke an NPR record — in just 25 minutes, they garnered more first-day YouTube views than any previous Tiny Desk Concert.
The BTS Meal went on sale Wednesday and includes 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, a medium order of french fries, a medium Coke and sweet chili and Cajun dipping sauces – two new flavors inspired by McDonald's South Korea. A commercial featuring the group's latest single, "Butter," aired Wednesday night.
BTS is also releasing a clothing line, so you can eat those nuggets in style. Items for sale include bath robes, hoodies and socks. The products combine the band's signature purple color with McDonald's logos, like a box of fries with seven fries (one for each member of the group). Fans can grab the clothes on the Weverse shop app.
McDonald's is also including for the first time in its collaboration "four straight weeks of dynamic in-app content for customers." The digital content will be viewable only within the McDonald's app.
While Travis Scott and J. Balvin enjoyed domestic success with their celebrity McDonald's meals, the BTS collaboration is the first to be made available worldwide. However, some U.S. fans have expressed disappointment at the domestic packaging of the meal, which doesn't include the BTS purple boxes seen in international orders.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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