The Unusual Way McDonald's Employees Are Marketing The New Saweetie Meal
McDonald's is collaborating with another recording artist, bringing rapper Saweetie's favorite meal for a limited time, per a McDonald's news release. When customers order the Saweetie meal, they get more than a Big Mac, a four-piece order of McNuggets, fries, a Sprite, and "Saweetie 'N Sour" sauce. The meal also comes in Saweetie-themed packaging (think icy sparkles and a bold cursive font), and employees rap the first line of one of Saweetie's hit songs before you even place your order — sort of.
As user @Brookeisrage demonstrated recently on TikTok, she opened the conversation through the drive-thru speaker by saying, "That's my best friend. Welcome to McDonald's today. Can I interest you in the Saweetie Meal?" Saweetie fans will know, "That's my best friend" is the first line of "Best Friend," her hit song with Doja Cat (via Genius). (You can check out the lyrics for yourself to see why employees end their Saweetie impersonation right there.) @Brookeisrage didn't seem overly inspired in her performance, but it was well-received with nearly 1 million likes.
Commenters on Brooke's TikTok either cringed on her behalf or suggested alternative Saweetie lyrics. "I KNOW you don't get paid enough to say something like that," TikTok user @chefda45 commented. Since Brooke was working the drive-thru, another commenter thought a car-themed lyric from "Best Friend" would have been more appropriate: "Is that my bestie in a Tesie? Hi welcome to McDonald's," the commenter said. Saweetie is using "Tesie," of course, as a nickname for Tesla.
Saweetie worked the drive-thru herself at a California McDonald's
In text inserted over her TikTok video, Brooke said her boss was making her say the line "that's my best friend" to every customer. McDonald's managers may be trying to preempt the drive-thru customer from blasting a Saweetie song over their car speakers, similar to what they did in 2020 with the Travis Scott and J Balvin meals.
While employees may be mandated to show Saweetie some love by quoting the opening line to her big hit "Best Friend," we're not sure Saweetie is returning the love to employees. More accurately, maybe Saweetie wasn't doing a good job getting into character while working the drive-thru at a Lynwood, California McDonald's on August 9 (via Sandra Rose). A video on Instagram shows Saweetie at the drive-thru window wearing a "McDonald's Saweetie Crew" T-shirt, gold chains, and her trademark extra-long fingernails that look like they haven't gone anywhere near a hot fryer. The customer holding the camera asks Saweetie, fake-naively, if she works there. Saweetie gives a little eye roll and says, "Does it look like I work here?"