A Look Back at 2021's Best Celebrity Partnership Meals

If you're a fast-food brand, there is no end to how you can surprise and delight customers: entice restaurant patrons with toys and collectibles (but you'd better make them sustainable); introduce a new menu item (better make it plant-based); or appeal to consumers' worship of celebrities. The first two options carry a great deal of risk and cost. On one hand, imagine the prospect of a warehouse filled with unwanted merchandise. (But on the opposite end of that spectrum, consider the ill-will of McDonald's Pokémon fans seeing items being sold for thousands of dollars on eBay.) While not entirely without jeopardy (yes, we're still thinking of the Peloton/Chris Noth debacle), celebrity tie-ins remain the safest, surest bet for fast-food brands to inject extra attraction to store visits and orders, app downloads and affinity and awareness. The past year saw collaborations between Canadian sensations Justin Bieber and Tim Horton’s, Dunkin’ and TikTok icon Charli D’Amelio, Sweetgreen's courting of tennis star Naomi Osaka, a spicy duet between Megan Thee Stallion and Popeyes and, most recently, Mariah Carey and McDonald's ending 2021 on a high note. Famous people have always done brand promotions, but this year's celebrities went further that just lending their names and images. Most of these celebs didn't necessarily step into quick-serve restaurants' food labs, but these musical artists, actors, sports figures and social media influencers did more than appear next to a plant-based burger or drink. They began putting their personalities and the lifestyles they represent on the menu. In doing that, 2021 ushered in a new kind of alliance between personal and corporate branding. Here's our overview of some of these efforts, which will influence the ways stars and fast-food menu items become more entwined throughout 2022: Made in Canada As a brand, Tim Hortons is very much tied to its country of origin. And while Justin Bieber has been global for years, he too, was born in the Great White North. So a collaboration between the pop star and the coffee and doughnut chain, which still maintains 75% of its locations in Canada, was bound to happen. Together, Bieber and Tim Hortons created three new flavors of the brand’s Timbit doughnut holes, dubbed Timbiebs: birthday cake waffle, chocolate white fudge and sour cream chocolate chip. Justin Bieber is Canadian and likes Tim Hortons. As Adweek's Paul Hiebert reported, the largely improvised 60-second TV spot produced by agency of record GUT saw Bieber and a Tim Hortons representative brainstorm ideas for the new Timbits offering. “With Timbiebs, it wasn’t a case of presenting a product to Justin and just asking for his approval,” Hope Bagozzi, chief marketing officer at Tim Hortons, told Adweek. “We worked closely together to develop the flavors, taste test and trial different ideas.” Running on D’Amelio TikTok superstar Charli D’Amelio made her Dunkin’ fandom known even before the chain added a signature drink in her name in 2020. The two reunited in 2021 to promote Dunkin’s sweet cold foam for cold brew, leading to D’Amelio’s new signature drink: the Charli cold foam. BBDO New York spearheaded a campaign running on social channels of both D’Amelio and Dunkin’ with an eye toward duplicating last September’s success, Adweek's David Cohen reported at the time. Charli D’Amelio’s new signature drink is the Charli Cold Foam Cold brew sales spiked 20% the day after The Charli debuted and 45% on the following day. TikTok followers also spiked for the brand up to 2.1 million, making it the top fast-food chain on the platform. Taking wellness center court Sweetgreen’s out-of-home spots have arrived in New York just in time for the return of the U.S. Open—at full attendance—as the brand’s marketing partner Naomi Osaka made her run for a third championship. The OOH effort, which was managed by the brand’s long-term outdoor media partner MilkMoney, was a chance for both Sweetgreen and Osaka to expand parallel stories that both have been sharing since the spring. Still, for the most part, the billboards, digital screens and takeovers in Manhattan’s Union Square are all about “celebrating” the fast-casual food chain’s largest market, New York, according to Nathaniel Ru, Sweetgreen’s co-founder and chief brand officer. The OOH effort is a chance for both Sweetgreen and Osaka to expand parallel stories that both have been telling since the spring. Back in May, Sweetgreen launched a major ad campaign starring Osaka. As the ads rolled out, the company also initiated a brand refresh, aiming for nothing less than “redefining fast-food,” a vision spurred by the perception that consumers were inclined toward healthy eating after a year of binge-watching and eating poorly during lockdowns. At the end of May, just as Sweetgreen’s marketing program was rolling out, Osaka found herself embroiled in a controversy as she abruptly withdrew from the French Open, citing a need to care for her mental health. Any other brand partnership might have withered in the media glare—especially considering that Sweetgreen was already paving the way for an IPO filing at the time. But the incident, and Osaka’s additional decision to pull out of June’s Wimbledon matches, only served to validate the reasons for their alliance. In addition to being Sweetgreen’s “youngest investor,” the 23-year-old tennis phenom also participated in designing a meal plan. That personalized “Osaka meal” was touted on the brand’s billboards and available through the Sweetgreen app. “With Naomi, we just wanted to make sure that people knew we supported the decisions she was taking and to see how that amplifies the fact that mental health is health in general,” Ru said. “It’s all part of the conversation we’re trying to inspire.” Despite the emphasis on eating well, the marketing message in those OOH ads was not about getting people to try a certain diet or even to lose weight; the brand wanted to be seen as integrating healthy eating habits into consumers’ lifestyles while bringing a sense of fun to its image. Adding a new layer of spice Megan Thee Stallion landed a number of branded promotional deals the past year. But her deal with Popeyes was possibly the most entrepreneurial of them all, Adweek's Shannon Miller observed. On the surface, the partnership looked like a standard celebrity endorsement, featuring a special menu item and dedicated merchandise. But Popeyes raised the stakes by introducing the rapper as its newest franchise owner, taking the collaboration a step beyond just temporary partnership. “I’m appreciative of Popeyes commitment to empowering Black women and look forward to opening Popeyes Restaurants,” Megan Thee Stallion said in a statement. “Teaming up with Popeyes is such a milestone in my journey and evolution as an entrepreneur.” Popeyes and Megan Thee Stallion are already gearing up to drop their final merch line. The central component of this new partnership is the Megan Thee Stallion Hottie Sauce made with honey, cider vinegar and Aleppo pepper. To hype up the new addition, Popeyes released a Western-inspired short visual featuring Megan’s alter ego, Tina Snow, as a bandit who was after the new sauce. Popeyes and Megan also planned to release a total of three limited-edition merchandise lines. Designed by the artist herself, the first collection—titled Thee Heat—included bikinis, long-sleeve shirts, hats, tumblers and Popeyes chicken tenders plush dog toys. Two additional merchandise releases were rolled out in November. In addition, Miller reported, Megan and Popeyes agreed on the chain making a six-figure donation to Houston Random Acts of Kindness, a nonprofit dedicated to the betterment of the Houston community. A golden voice under Golden Arches It's fitting that McDonald's would kick off the holiday season with Mariah Carey, whose "All I Want for Christmas" has become a ubiquitous this time of year. (It's also worth noting that McDonald's pioneered the celebrity-named menu item in 1992 with the McJordan.) The "Mariah Menu," as Shannon Miller reported, took the brand’s longstanding, star-driven series a step beyond the usual customized meal to offer a new featured item each day through the McDonald’s app for a limited time. “Mariah goes with the holidays like ketchup and fries, so we couldn’t think of a better partner to help us celebrate the upcoming season,” Jennifer Healan, McDonald’s vp of U.S. marketing, brand content and engagement, said in a statement. “Just like McDonald’s brings people around the table with their favorite orders, Mariah’s music connects us all during this time of the year.” The Mariah Menu goes a step beyond the usual customized meal to offer a daily featured item through the McDonald's app for 12 straight days. To inaugurate the new partnership, the brand released a 42-second video created with Wieden+Kennedy New York and The Narrative Group. The clip shows Carey appearing in an elegant red gown to explain how the deal works. McDonald’s and Carey’s new partnership may surprise some, but the performer says that her love of the restaurant stems from her family. “Some of my favorite memories with my kids are our family trips to McDonald’s and, of course, each of us has our go-to order. Mine is the cheeseburger, and I get it with extra pickles,” Carey said in a statement. “Bringing together some of our favorite food from McDonald’s with my all-time favorite season is a holiday wish come true.”

Year in Review

A Look Back at 2021's Best Celebrity Partnership Meals

Putting stars on the menu is the kind of low-cost, efficient concept that made fast-food famous

David Kaplan

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David Kaplan