Celebrities With Signature Fast Food Meals and Merch

Celebrities have been endorsing fast-food brands for decades, but it's only since the McJordan in 1992 that they've had signature meals to go along with the commercials. And since fast-food restaurants are always about making an extra buck, there's often collaborative merchandise that goes along with these partnerships. From social media stars to a donut-loving Canadian teen idol, here are some of the most memorable celebrity fast-food collabs.

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In a match made in Canadian donut heaven, Tim Hortons fanatic Justin Bieber is credited with turning around the breakfast chain's fortunes. In November 2021, the company launched Timbiebs, a riff on the chain's popular Timbits donut holes. The flavors of the three new treats were developed by Bieber and were accompanied by dual-branded merch. Beliebers — that's the name given to Bieber super fans — showed up for the company, leading to a 10.3% rise in sales in the last quarter of 2021, compared to an 11% decline in the same quarter a year before. The Canadian singer said "doing a Tim Hortons collab has always been a dream of mine," and clearly the feeling is mutual. 

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All I want for Christmas is… McDonald's? Christmas-song goddess Mariah Carey teamed up with the fast-food giant to bring a full menu of freebies to customers, not just a meal. For the 12 days leading up to Christmas last year, you could get a select item free each day with any $1 or more purchase using the restaurant's app. That included Mariah's favorite menu pick, the classic cheeseburger, as well as Big Macs, hotcakes, and other items.

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Megan Thee Stallion, a Grammy award-winning artist, has brought Hottie Sauce to Popeye's menus. The honey and Aleppo pepper sauce is sticky, sweet, and hot, and you can get it on a fried chicken sandwich or as a nugget dipping sauce. If you'd like to look the part while dipping your nugs, there's a whole array of branded merchandise to go with it, including a bikini, a stuffed fried chicken kids toy, and "The Hottie is Here" T-shirt. 

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Before Mariah Carey collaborated with McDonald's, Saweetie did back in August 2021. The hip-hop star launched her own Saweetie meal that included a Big Mac, 4-piece McNuggets, medium fries, medium Sprite, barbecue sauce, and Saweetie Sauce. While it was rumored the Saweetie Sauce was just a renamed version of McDonald's regular sweet and sour sauce, it was fun anyway. 

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Not only did BK release a meal of rapper Nelly's favorites last year, it was part of a promotion with two other artists — Anitta, a Brazilian pop star, and Lil Huddy, a popular TikToker — called Keep It Real Meals. Nelly's meal included a Whopper with cheese, small fries, and small Sprite, while Anitta's meal was the Impossible vegetarian version. Lil Huddy's meal was decidedly more interesting: spicy Ch'King with cheese, mozzarella sticks, and a chocolate shake.

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The band Twenty One Pilots worked with Chipotle in spring 2021 to release a namesake burrito and dual-branded merch line to promote the band's latest album. The burrito was a mashup of two of the band's member's favorite items and contained chicken, white rice, tomato salsa, corn salsa, cheese, lettuce, and queso.

Korean pop music, otherwise known as K-pop, has been steadily growing in popularity in the U.S., and McDonald's decided to use that trend to gain customers with its BTS collaboration in early 2021. The K-pop boy band's meal included a 10-piece McNugget, fries, Coke, and two brand new dipping sauces — Cajun and sweet chili. The meal and the merchandise that went along with the collaboration were big hits, and helped the company's sales jump.

Back in January 2021, Chipotle released a Shawn Mendes bowl that benefitted the singer's charitable foundation to create grants for young sustainability activists. It was the first time Chipotle had a philanthropic entree on the menu and a dollar from each bowl went to the foundation. If you ordered the Shawn Mendes bowl, you got cauliflower rice, black beans, chicken, corn salsa, lettuce, and guacamole.

Wendy's wanted to appeal to a different segment of the market with its celebrity promotion in late 2020: gamers. Five Twitch streamers, who all have millions of followers that watch them play computer games, all had their own meals. TFUE, for instance, preferred 10 chicken nuggets, fries, and a light lemonade, while ItsHafu went with a Baconater, fries, and a Sprite. And there had to be a game involved, so each meal purchase included a chance to win free food and merch.

Bigger is better when it comes to pizza for former basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal. He sits on the board of directors for Papa Johns (previously Papa John’s), and he's the one that personally conceived of the company's Shaq-a-Roni pizza. Launched first in 2020, it's an extra large pie topped with extra cheese and extra pepperoni and cut into huge Shaq-sized slices.  

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In a nod to Gen Z, Dunkin' collaborated with Charli D'Amelio, the creator with the biggest following on TikTok. The 17-year-old had 129 million followers, and Dunkin' was hoping that they'd all run out and grab the Charli, her signature drink, made with whole milk, cold brew, and three pumps of caramel swirl. The chain had a record number of users on their app the day the drink launched, so clearly the exposure paid off.

It was social media that prompted singer Miley Cyrus to team up with Chipotle as well. A 2019 TikTok trend had users posting "If Miley comments I will…" and Cyrus obliged many of them. Chipotle decided to jump in on the fun and posted that if she commented, they'd make a Miley burrito, and you can guess what happened. The vegetarian Guac is Extra But So is Miley burrito debuted in 2020 with rice, black beans, fajita veggies, two salsas, lettuce, and guacamole.

Before 10 people were tragically killed at his music festival, Travis Scott was seen by McDonald's as a celebrity who could reach a young demographic. In 2020 you could purchase co-branded Cactus Jack and MickieD's merchandise and the Travis Scott meal, made up of exactly what he's been ordering there since childhood: a Quarter Pounder, fries, Sprite, and barbecue sauce. It was so popular that the chain had supply shortages of Quarter Pounder ingredients. 

G.O.A.T. basketball star Michael Jordan was the first McDonald's celebrity to get his own meal back in 1992. It was called the McJordan Special, but it was only available in the Chicago area where Jordan played, making it a hot commodity. So hot, in fact, that in 2012, a bottle of the McJordan BBQ Sauce sold on Ebay for $9,995. If you'd like to recreate the meal for a little less, you can just order a Quarter Pounder with pickles, onions, bacon, and barbecue sauce, plus fries and a soda.