McDonalds is no stranger to Collaborations with the Entertainment world.
This is something that every child who has ever come into contact with the fast food giant will know.
Whether it is Disney or Dreamworks or any other children's program, a good number of us would have come across a few princess figurines or a few creature figurines in our time.
Things are a little different in terms of collaborative efforts with the animation studios these days however (junk food argument and all), and I don't think I've seen a cartoon character figurine in a McDonalds Happy Meal box for a while.
But McDonalds hasn't sworn off Merchandising, nor killed off the department in corporate headquarters.
Because Summer 2021 saw the launch of The BTS Meal.
I don't quite know the scope of the launch.
But (IMO) I do know what this seemingly ordinary, nondescript meal may mean.
For most of us, this is just a commonplace, regular McDonalds meal- nothing out of the ordinary, nothing fanciful.
To a certain extent, seen from a certain perspective, that can be true.
Especially when you consider that McDonalds didn't create a brand new (Korean-themed) food item for the meal (they could have done something related to bulgogi or gochujang!) nor did they include stuff like figurines or pens or even key chains for the customers.
But for a fan of BTS, that meal- 9 pieces of Chicken McNuggets in a specially printed box, along with fries and Coke- is a symbol of solidarity with his or her fellow members of the ARMY.
The world of merchandise is a complicated one.
The world of music merchandise can be an even more complicated one.
And not everything is available at the same time at the same price.
What is available for the launch of this album today will be limited edition tomorrow.
What is released at this price today will cost twenty times more tomorrow.
It is a world where one item is not enough.
It is a world where you see what the other fans have and which you hope to have for yourself.
To be a fan of a music group (or any entertainment franchise) is to enter a never-ending cycle where a poster on your wall or in your drawer is not enough because there're still the Tshirts, the lightsticks, the lanyards, the pendants, the stickers, the hoodies, the sweaters, the notebooks, the drawstring bags, the laptop cases, the phone cases, the backpacks, the mugs, the pens and a thousand other items of merchandise from debut to present day offered according to all the albums and singles that they have ever sung.
It is almost impossible for everyone in the ARMY to be able to collect everything at once because something will always be missing somewhere.
Moreover everyone has different lives and not everyone can have access to their albums/singles or a piece of accompanying BTS merchandise wherever and whenever they like.
What's more, there are the parents.
Every fan who has ever asked a (highly practical) parent for moolah to go to a concert (let's talk about the chores to be done and/or the school-grade bargaining), buy a hoodie, a mug or even a poster of their favorite musician/group/boyband knows the pain.
Enter McDonalds.
And its 9 piece Chicken McNuggets meal in a specially printed box, a specially printed cup and unique sauce.
Parents may be able to argue down their child's request for the new album or the concert or (another) poster, but most will find it hard to deny their child the triple satisfaction of collecting the BTS McDonalds cup, the BTS Mcdonalds box, joining his/her fellow ARMY fans in owning the purple-colored, logo-monogrammed utensils, and having a meal all at the same time (Everyone in the family can share out the fries)
For the fans themselves, it is a singular opportunity to do the same thing like what other members in the ARMY is doing (depending on where the meal was launched), share their experience of buying the meal, eating the meal, saving the utensils, and showing each other what they've done with the (clean) (not so clean) merchandise from the meal.
We've seen the (specially released) publicity about the sauces going for unbelievably high prices.
But there has also been publicity about the care taken by the ARMY to turn the cardboard from the carefully washed, carefully cut out box and cup into decor for keychains, phone cases, and water tumblers. Those who haven't upcycled the designs have pasted them into notebooks and scrapbooks for memories.
I belong to the latter.
Because I'm lazy to go get the tumbler and wrap the paper around it.
But I do appreciate the music of BTS.
And I do appreciate the fact that merchandise can be for everyone.