McDonald’s summoned Korean pop sensation BTS to promote a new menu, a move that the world’s largest fast food chain hopes will expand the reach of its celebrity promotional campaigns on a global scale.
The menu will be available next month in nearly 50 countries, including South Korea, McDonald’s said in a statement Monday, and will include chicken McNuggets, French fries and two sauces.
The chain has seen its revenues fall outside the United States during the pandemic. McDonald’s is turning to celebrity endorsements and time-limited menus to get customers back to restaurants as economies reopen with the rollout of vaccines.
BTS’s food is launched after similar deals in the United States with musicians J Balvin and Travis Scott, which McDonald’s say boosted sales in the latter half of last year.
Increased demand during the Travis Scott promotion caused the company to temporarily run out of ingredients to assemble its iconic Quarter Pound burgers in some restaurants.