The Fast Food Mascot Who Was Originally A Villain (And Then A TikTok Drink Trend)
From the recognizable clown Ronald McDonald to the once-retired alien mascot CosMc, McDonald's has a long list of characters that help market menu items. One of the biggest changes to the McDonald's branding was in 1971 with the introduction of Grimace to the mascot lineup, alongside well-known members of McDonaldland like Mayor McCheese and The Hamburglar. But what is this purple creature actually supposed to be? McDonald's confirmed in a tweet back in 2014 that Grimace is the "embodiment of a milkshake or a taste bud," depending on how you interpret the mascot's lore. While today he is seen as a rather huggable and misunderstood member of the McDonald's mascot team, his original design was a whole lot more sinister.
In a McDonaldland advertisement from the early 1970s via YouTube, Ronald McDonald spots the purple mascot stealing shakes and Coca-Cola from McDonald's. He is called "evil grimace" and is depicted as having large eyes and eyebrows formed in a scowl, scaly skin, and four arms for holding all his stolen treats. However, McDonald's quickly discovered that fans didn't connect with Grimace's thieving nature and menacing appearance, and soon he was rebranded with a softer, more adorable look and goofy attitude.
Throughout the years, Grimace seldom made appearances in McDonald's promotions, fated to be a less popular member of the cast. That is, until the summer of 2023, when a berry-flavored purple shake introduced Grimace — and his original evil nature — to a new generation of McDonald's customers.
Grimace's original villainous vibe may be what sparked the TikTok craze
In celebration of Grimace's 52nd birthday on June 12, 2023, McDonald's released a limited-edition Grimace Birthday Meal that included a Big Mac or 10-piece McNugget, fries, and a brand-new milkshake that was a vibrant purple color, much like the mascot himself. One of many unforgettable fast food milkshakes, it tasted like a sweet blend of vanilla and berries, but its flavor wasn't the reason for going viral. And no, it wasn't going viral because fries taste great with it — even though there is a scientific reason fries and milkshakes are delicious together.
@thefrazmaz R.I.P Grimace (and me) #mcdonalds #grimace #milkshake #grimaceshake #birthday #fakedeath #yummy
A TikTok trend marking the celebration of Grimace's birthday with a drink of his brand new shake went viral after users started pretending to show the gruesome aftermath of ingesting the shake, complete with people being unconscious, frothing at the mouth, and convulsing. While the shake was perfectly safe to ingest, fans took the fabricated consequences to the extreme.
One TikTok that gained over one million likes showed a group of friends covered in the purple shake, claiming, "They couldn't stop Grimace." This found-footage horror genre is not uncommon online, but its connection to Grimace's resurgence was an unforeseen outcome of the 2023 McDonald's promotion, and could be a callback to the purple mascot's villainous roots.
This trend brought Grimace to the forefront of pop culture in a big way. McDonald's itself caught onto this trend rather quickly, responding to the trend with a tweet of an adorably wide-eyed Grimace staring into the camera, with the caption, "meee pretending i don't see the grimace shake trendd." The popular drink returned for Grimace's 53rd birthday in 2024.