The Unusual Ways People Are Ordering McDonald's New Cactus Jack Meal
A lot of things are different in 2020, but at least one thing remains the same. If anything can go viral faster than COVID-19, it's teenagers goofing around on social media.
TikTok user @jimmypasta posted a short video of his drive-thru experience at McDonald's. "Hi! How may I help you?" asks the friendly voice from the speaker. A teenage male's voice responds: "Let's keep this short and sweet. I think you know why we're here." Without missing a beat, the McDonald's employee responds, "Travis Scott burger?" The boy then blasts the wobbly synthesizer intro to Scott's hit song, "Sicko Mode."
One week ago, McDonald's introduced the Travis Scott meal — a Quarter Pounder with cheese, bacon, and lettuce, plus fries, barbecue sauce, and a Sprite. Since then, that TikTok has been viewed more than 2.5 million times and has become a big part of a new trend: Trying unusual ways to order the new McDonald's meal, also known as the Cactus Jack.
Explore the #travisscottburger hashtag on TikTok and you'll find a lot of creative variations on how to order a Cactus Jack (named after Scott's record label) and a lot of confused McDonald's employees. Scott tells people on his McDonald's TV commercial, "Say Cactus Jack sent you." But TikTok user @wrightwayyy changed it up with a reference to Scott's relationship with Kylie Jenner. "Kylie's baby-daddy sent me," he told the employee, who probably just wanted to get through her workday with as little hassle as possible.
McDonald's asks employees to be prepared for unusual orders
McDonald's workers are either amused or annoyed by the variations on Cactus Jack orders (via Variety). The part where the customer blasts Scott's music into their headphones probably lands more on the annoying end of that spectrum. But the folks at McDonald's corporate offices are asking their crews to be alert to the creative ways customers are ordering the Travis scott meal.
In a memo sent to franchise owners, McDonald's chief marketing officer asked them to make their staff aware of the trending ways to order the meal (via Business Insider). Specifically, employees should be prepared to hear not just "Cactus Jack sent me" but also "It's lit, sicko mode" (referring to Scott's trademark ad-lib and the song title), "The Fortnite guy burger" (a reference to Scott's virtual concert on the multiplayer video game earlier this year), and, of course, "You know why I am here (while playing Travis Scott music)."
The same memo also told restaurant owners to "make sure crew knows how much you appreciate their efforts in support of this promotion." But as one TikTok user put it in the comments under @jimmypasta's viral video, "They don't get paid enough for this."
Customers can order the Travis Scott meal — and employees will only have to put up with it — through October 4.