McDonald's viral Grimace shake TikTok trend actually boosted sales

McDonald's execs created a hit menu item that significantly boosted sales — and there is absolutely no way they could've seen it happening the way it did.

The fast food giant released its quarterly earnings report on Thursday, noting a 14 percent bump in net sales and $2.31 billion in net income, compared with $1.19 billion a year earlier. That's a real jump and that's due, in part, to a viral trend surrounding its Grimace shake in the United States.

"This quarter, if I'm being honest, the theme was Grimace," CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a conference call.

In case you missed it, McDonald's this summer released a limited-time-only purple Grimace shake to honor the character's birthday. TikTok, for one reason or another, took the shake and turned it into a trend where people basically made mini horror films. The beat of every TikTok was wish Grimace a happy birthday, take a sip, say it's good, then cut to some horrific, frightening scene. It actually inspired some pretty impressive mini-filmmaking of sorts.

It was one of the biggest trends of the summer on TikTok and, apparently, inspired lots of interest in the shake. Granted, it's not like that many people were doing the trend — but it was all basically free advertising. McDonald's has made it a habit to go viral with menu items such as its adult happy meal last year or the Rick and Morty-inspired Szechuan sauce debacle in 2017.

Still, there was no way McDonald's could've seen the Grimace trend coming. It was too weird to plan. In fact, the TikTok trend slyly mocked the corporate, capitalistic, absurdity of "celebrating" the "birthday" of a giant, purple, anthropomorphic tastebud. But if TikTok was mocking McD's, the suits behind the golden arches were laughing all the way to the bank.