Grimace Shake horror trend

JUN 12 2023

McDonald's launched a purple berry-flavoured shake on 12 June 2023 for the Grimace character's birthday, and TikTok users turned it into an unplanned horror format: creators would wish Grimace happy birthday, sip the shake, then cut to themselves staged as dead with purple fluid streaming from their mouth. The trend accumulated over 2.9 billion views and McDonald's leaned in, making it a rare case of a subversive fan format benefiting the brand it mocked.