Burger King’s Barbie Burger Is Bright Pink

The likely aim of the Burger King Barbie burger is to incite a social media trend, much like McDonalds did with its Grimace-themed purple milkshake earlier in the summer. And so far, it’s working. With the cast of “Barbie” now on strike and unable to promote the movie as part of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA work stoppage, it and other upcoming films are likely to rely ever more on corporate tie-ins like the Barbie Dreamburger.

But even prior to the strike, fast food tie-ins have been especially popular in recent years. First, there was the Travis Scott meal at McDonald’s, quickly followed by other celebrity meals like the Saweetie branded one. Fast food tie-ins are nothing new, as anyone who remembers getting Disney toys in their Happy Meals as a kid can attest, but they’ve taken on new life as social media users turn them into viral trends. The recent Grimace birthday shake at McDonald’s appears to have been massively successful, mostly because influencers on TikTok created a bizarre trend in which they drank the shake before waking up in strange places or being murdered by Grimace. Then, of course, there was the infamous “Rick and Morty” Szechuan sauce debacle.

Some folks found the Barbie burger a perfect opportunity for humor. Imagining how other fast food tie-ins for this summer’s hottest movies would look, @Brandon_0402 quipped, “Taco Bell sponsored Oppenheimer because it will give you nuclear diarrhea.”