Fast food is the new streetwear, haven’t you heard?
Over the past year, burgers and fries have morphed into trendy eats emblematic of their (many) celebrity endorsers: Megan Thee Stallion, Saweetie, BTS, Lil Nas X, and Mariah Carey are among the many big names who’ve partnered with fast food chains.
With a seemingly never-ending roster of limited-edition celebrity meals rolling out each month, McDonald’s, Popeyes and Taco Bell are now governed by the same scarcity model that hyped streetwear brands thrive on.
Just as hypebeast hawkers flip Supreme hoodies, BTS-approved dipping sauces are being sold on eBay for hundreds — even thousands — of dollars.
And it’s not just fast food that’s cashing in on the allure of clickbait-y releases.
Reese’s recently launched a three-pound, peanut butter cup “pie” (only 3,000 were produced and promptly sold out), and Van Leeuwan’s website crashed after launching Kraft macaroni and cheese-flavored ice cream.
Elsewhere, KAWS and Reese’s Puffs partnered on limited edition boxes of cereal, available at resale for $150.
2021 has been a year of cursed food things, seemingly dreamed up for the sole purpose of virality (Tropicana-flavored toothpaste, anyone?). Take a trip down the most upsetting aisle in the supermarket with this year’s most outrageous, “but why though” fare.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKE0pgXLHPg/
Starting 2021 off on a questionable note, Chipotle launched the Shawn Mendes Bowl, a guacamole-topped salad, to plug his charity, the Shawn Mendes Foundation. For every sale of the $12.20 bowl, $1 was donated to the initiative.
We’re all for giving back to the community, but was a Mendes-ified salad really the best way to get the word out?
IKEA releases meatball-scented candles https://t.co/uV2cMFTZ86 pic.twitter.com/XXX34oyRVJ
— New York Post (@nypost) August 3, 2021
Because nothing sounds more appealing than coming home to a beef-scented apartment.
The Hendrick's Gaming Chaise is the first gaming chair designed exclusively for unplugged non-digital pursuits. Ideal for seated parlour activities & card games. This is an extremely limited edition item in the USA & the UK. https://t.co/Dmi71lP5Y2 pic.twitter.com/d9hPMxkIvB
— HENDRICK'S GIN (@HendricksGin) November 19, 2021
An anti-gaming gaming chair, Hendrick’s $4,000 chaise is optimized for real-world — rather than virtual — activities such as reading, sleeping, and drinking alcohol.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMh2irVJW1b/
Potato chip giant Pringles cashed in on the NFT craze with its first “virtual flavor,” christened CryptoCrisp. Essentially a GIF of a Pringles container, only 50 were made — and five still remain, if you’re willing to shell out 4.95 Ethereum (approximately $23,000) for the pointless, inedible collectible.
everyone: happy international women’s da—
burger king: —we have the PERFECT joke pic.twitter.com/ohqN7wqWDa
— slate (@PleaseBeGneiss) March 8, 2021
This one isn’t exactly a weird food, but it’s worth shouting out for its sheer ridiculousness
In March, the fast food chain decided to celebrate International Women’s Day by tweeting out, “Women belong in the kitchen,” intended to highlight the lack of female representation in the culinary world.
Unsurprisingly, the now-deleted post didn’t go down well.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVvbnSLFQAr/
This Father’s Day you won’t hear Dad rattling off a list of gifts he’d like. Dads are men of few words. But some of them are. Want. I. That. Lite. Miller. Beer. And #Shoezie. https://t.co/uK39a7XQFd pic.twitter.com/KVB7itKIdR
— Miller Lite (@MillerLite) June 14, 2021
The two giants of dude culture put their heads together to produce a dad shoe-shaped beer koozie. Enter the Shoozie, perfect for cracking open a cold one with the boys and giving a whole new meaning to the “shoey.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CREc4-NDYt6/
Soup gang, rejoice. Panera has you covered with bathing suits emblazoned with “SOUP” across the boobs.
Sips like a Coke, finishes like a Coffee.#CokewithCoffee pic.twitter.com/d42ZIe2Rew
— Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company (@AtlanticCoke) January 28, 2021
A cheap alternative to Adderall?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWI9u7tvEOZ/
One of Khaled’s major keys is apparently launching a delivery-only chicken wing joint serving up loudly titled flavors such as “They Don’t Want You To Win TRUFFALO” and “You Loyal! Lemon Pepper.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKFVM5gpUsy/?
As cute as a nugg-shaped pillow could’ve been, the disgraced rapper’s fried cushion looks more like my eczema flare-up than a tasty snack.