Art by George Butler.
This episode was written and produced by Fran Board and Casey Emmerling.
The “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle is one of the most recognizable melodies on Earth. But the story behind it involves a global competition, thousands of mixes, a Trojan Horse pop song, and a surprising amount of celebrity beef. In this updated version of one of our favorite episodes, we trace how a five-note jingle became a worldwide phenomenon, and the controversy over who actually wrote it. Featuring Tom Batoy and Franco Tortora of Mona Davis Music.
MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE
Looking Behind the Bar by Stationary Sign
Tempest Rondo by Dian Shuai
Norwich by Steven Gutheinz
Yeah Yeah Yeah (Instrumental) by Goldenface
Noir by Red Licorice
A Classical Noir by Mary Riddle
Just the Right Amount by Arthur Benson
Odd Behavior by Arthur Benson
Feeling Alright (Instrumental) by Gavin Luke
Jokers by Mary Riddle
Soft and Way Up by Plum King
Mr. Mole and Son by Love and Weasel
For We Shall Know Speed by Truck Stop
Funky Nights by OTE
Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced by Defacto Sound.
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View Transcript ▶︎
[music in: Stationary Sign - Looking Behind the Bar]
Dallas: Check, check, check. There we go.
Over at Defacto Sound, we have lots of meetings between Casey, our Supervising Producer at Twenty Thousand Hertz…
Casey: Testing one, two. Is that better?
…and Grace who runs my post audio company, Defacto Sound.
Grace: Oh, that sounds way better. Yeah.
Out of the blue, right at the end of one of our meetings, Casey told me and Grace to start recording.
[music out]
Casey: Okay. Thank you for joining on a little mysterious side quest.
Grace: I love a side quest.
Dallas: Me too.
Casey: Yeah. And what that side quest is is a…
Announcer: Fast Food Slogan Challenge.
Dallas: Oh, wow!
Grace: Great. Oh my god, sorry. I'm already blown… blown away by the production value.
Dallas: Wow, like how understated you are. How did you have that in your back pocket the entire day where we've just been, like, slogging through the most boring business conversations?
Grace: Casey really buried the lede.
Dallas: I wanna hear that again.
Casey: Yes.
Grace: Can you play it one more ti- yeah, exactly. I gotta hear it again.
Announcer: Fast Food Slogan Challenge.
Dallas: Wow.
Grace: Oh my god, incredible.
Casey: So that's exactly what it sounds like. I'm going to read you various fast food slogans, and you're gonna shout out which fast food chain it comes from.
Dallas: Okay.
Casey: I'll be keeping score as you go.
Grace: Oh gosh.
Casey: There are some repeated companies since these companies often use various slogans. So just because it was guessed once doesn't mean it can't come up again.
Dallas: So it's me against Grace?
Casey: Yes.
Grace: No!
Dallas: Oh, I’m sorry Grace.
Casey: This is a speed round. I've got a suspenseful music track to play underneath of us to hopefully induce some anxiety while you're guessing.
Grace: I'm so- Okay, I’m ready.
Dallas: I feel like I've eaten a lot more fast food than Grace, so I have an advantage here.
Casey: You have the expertise?
Dallas: Yes. Lots of expertise.
Grace: I grew up in a household where my dad was in advertising, and so I-I feel a different pressure, which is that I should also know these.
Casey: Ooh. You mean… they were doing flashcards for little three-year-old Grace… of fast food slogans?
Grace: At the dinner table. Exactly.
Casey: So the track is two and a half minutes long, so that's how long the competition will be. We'll see how many we get through in that time.
Dallas: Wow.
Grace: Oh my gosh. Okay.
Casey: Are you ready?
Dallas: N-n-yes
Grace: I think I, I think I'm ready.
[music in: Dian Shuai - Tempest Rondo]
Casey: Number one, “Live Más.”
Grace: Taco Bell!
Dallas: Taco-! Ugh.
[sfx: correct]
Casey: Yes. Number two, “Eat Fresh.”
Dallas: Um, uh, Ba- Baja Fresh?
Grace: Subway?
[sfx: correct]
Dallas: Oh, dang.
Casey: Yes. Number three, “We have the meats.”
Dallas: Arby’s?
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Arby’s?
Casey: Yes. Number four, “Have it your way.”
Grace: McDonald's? No. McDonald's?
Casey: Nope.
Dallas: Uh, have it your way.
Grace: Have it your way. Wendy's?
Casey: Nope.
Dallas: Have it your way. Um,
Grace: Have it... Oh, God. Oh, man.
Dallas: I don't know. Pass. I think it's really obvious though.
Casey: Another large burger company.
Grace: Burger King?
[sfx: correct]
Casey: Yes.
Dallas: Oh. Oh, okay.
Grace: Yes, okay.
Casey: Number five, “We do chicken right.”
Dallas: Um, Chick-fil-A? Or,
Grace: Chick-fil-A?
Dallas: Uh, Popeyes or-
Grace: Popeyes?
Casey: The other one.
Dallas: The other one ... uh,
Grace: Churches?
Dallas: Um, KFC? Yes.
[sfx: correct]
Casey: Yes.
Dallas: Oh, sweet.
Grace: Oh my god, the biggest one.
Casey: Number six, “Better ingredients, better pizza.”
Dallas: Papa John's.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Papa John's!
Casey: Yes. Number seven, “Think outside the bun.”
Dallas: Taco Bell?
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Taco Bell also? Okay.
Casey: Yes. Number eight, “Where's the beef?”
Grace: Also Arby's. Wait, Arby's?
Casey: Nope.
Dallas: Uh, where's the beef? Um…
Grace: Where’s the beef? Burger King…
Dallas: I don’t know, pass.
Grace: McDonald's, Wendy's.
[sfx: correct]
Casey: Yes, you got it. Wendy's.
Grace: Wendy’s? Yes!
Dallas: Oh, that’s right.
Casey: Number nine, “It's finger-lickin' good.”
Dallas: KFC.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: KFC.
Casey: Yes. Number 10, “Pizza pizza.”
Dallas: Little Caesars.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Oh, Little Caesars.
Casey: Yes. Number 11, “Head for the border.”
Dallas: Taco Bell?
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Taco Bell?
Casey: Yep. Number 12, “Eat Mor Chikin.”
Dallas: Chick-fil-A.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Oh, Chick-fil-A with the cows.
Casey: Yes, Number 13, “Hot eats, cool treats.”
Dallas: No idea.
Grace: Oh, is it, um, ice cream of some kind?
Dallas: This must be regional.
Casey: Uh, yeah, I think this place is more known for their cool treats than their hot eats, but they have both.
Dallas: Culver's?
Grace: TCBY, is that still a business?
Casey: It’s a fast food chain that has food and dessert drinks.
Dallas: Dairy Queen?
Grace: Wendy’s?
Dallas: Dairy Queen?
[sfx: correct]
Casey: Yes, Dairy Queen.
Dallas: Oh, okay.
Casey: Number 14, "If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face."
Dallas: Wow. That is a great one, but I have no idea. I'm-I'm on this next time I-
Grace: No clue.
Casey: It was a campaign for their messy burgers in, like, the early 2000s.
Grace: Wendy's?
Dallas: No idea.
Casey: Nope.
Dallas: No idea.
Grace: McDonald's, Burger King…
Casey: The name includes the title of someone who's like the younger person with the same name as their parent.
Grace: Oh wait, Carl's Jr.? Carl Jr., Carl’s Jr?
[sfx: correct]
Casey: Correct. Number 15, “We speak fish."
Dallas: Uh, Captain D's?
Grace: Pot – uh, no Popeye’s?
Casey: Nope .
Grace: Oh, Long John Silver's.
[sfx: correct]
Casey: Yes
Dallas: Oh, s il– oh, yeah
Grace: Woo!
Casey: Number 16, “It's What You Crave.”
Dallas: Um, the electr- uh.
Grace: Oh man.
Dallas: Idiocracy, electrolytes, um…
Grace: Idiocracy.
Casey: Think early 2000s…
[music out]
Casey: Okay. Sounds like we're done. Well done.
Grace: Oh my God.
Dallas: Can we do that for another 30 minutes and just call it the episode?
Casey: Yeah. So if you're curious, the last one, “It's what you crave,” Think of an early 2000s goofy comedy that included the name of this place in the title of the film.
Dallas: It's what you crave?
Casey: Uh, yes, the-the name of the fast food restaurant was…
Grace: It’s in the…
Casey: …in the title of this comedy film
Grace: …of the movie?
Dallas: Wow. The legal involved.
Grace: I have no idea.
Casey: About two people going to this fast food place.
Grace: Oh, um, um, uh, uh, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle?
[sfx: correct]
Dallas: Oh, White Castle
Casey: Go to… White Castle.
Grace: White Castle?
Casey: You got it.
Grace: Yeah. Oh my gosh
[clip: Harold & Kumar Trailer]
Casey: All right, let me add up the scores. Dallas, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. And Grace with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. You got it, Dallas!
[sfx: celebration]
Dallas: I don't think I'm proud of this.
Grace: Sorry.
Dallas: I am literally carrying all of those still in my midsection.
Casey: Well, it was worth it for this moment of success right now.
Grace: It all led to this.
Dallas: Wow. How about that? I never win these things.
Casey: Well, I thought this would be a great way to introduce our story about what has to be the most famous and successful fast food slogan/jingle of all time, which is of course, "I'm Lovin' It" from McDonald's.
Dallas: Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.
Grace: I'm loving it.
Casey: We first aired it back in 2021, but we now have it updated with some new information, including a totally ridiculous hip-hop fast food feud.
Grace: Oh my God.
Casey: Try to say that five times fast. “Hip-hop fast food feud. Hip-hop fast food feud. Hip-hop fast food feud…”
Dallas: This also was one of those episodes that I think, arguably, could be the greatest deep dive we've ever done. It's everything I want in a Twenty Thousand Hertz episode. It's a very, you know, simple, fun melody that then turns into hilarity, and deep rabbit holes. There's gonna be despair, there's gonna be intrigue, there's gonna be, you know…
Grace: Betrayal, mystery.
Dallas: Betrayal and mystery, exactly.
Casey: Yeah, there kind of is.
Dallas: There is. It's, uh… it is very twisty and turny.
Casey: All right. Well, shall we roll the tape?
Dallas: Let's roll the tape.
[tape SFX into 20K sonic logo]
[SFX: McDonald’s audio logo] [sfx]
By this point, the McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle has to be one of the most recognizable melodies in the world. How many times do you think you’ve heard it? Hundreds? Thousands?
[music in: Norwich by Steven Gutheinz]
For nearly twenty years, the I’m Lovin’ It melody has been used in almost every McDonald’s commercial, but getting to those five notes took a long time. McDonald’s has always understood the power of a good jingle, and over the years, they’ve had tons of them. Early on, these often involved their mascot, Ronald McDonald. This is from their very first TV commercial, back in 1963. [crossfade into He’s Ronald McDonald...]
And here’s a nice groovy version from 1970. [Ronald’s gonna take you on a trip to McDonalds land]
By the mid 80s, it was a good time for a great taste. [SFX: It’s a good time...]
...and as McDonald’s expanded into other countries, they made unique jingles for those places. In the United Kingdom, McDonald’s made your day. [SFX: A visit to McDonald’s makes your day]
In Germany, they were simply good. [SFX: McDonald’s ist enfach gut]
In Brazil, it was a delicious moment. [SFX: Esse e o momento...]
At one point, they awarded free food to anyone who could recite their Big Mac slogan in under four seconds. [SFX: If you can say...]
In the late 80s, they took things a step further with the Million Dollar Menu Song, which set the entire menu to music.
[SFX: McDonald’s Million Dollar Menu Song]
In an epic promotion along the lines of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, McDonald’s printed over 80 million copies of this song on lightweight vinyl records, and attached them to newspapers and magazines.
[SFX: McDonald’s Million Dollar Menu Song continues]
On the one winning copy, the singers successfully made it through the entire menu. But on all the losing copies, the singers would make a mistake at some point in the song:
[SFX: McDonald’s Million Dollar Menu Song continues, “Oh, we’re so sorry…”]
These over-the-top promotions and catchy jingles helped McDonald’s spread across the globe through the 80s and 90s. But by the early 2000s, the company was in trouble. Their stock price was at a seven-year low, and for the first time in their history, they were losing money.
At the time, public opinion about fast food was changing. Waistlines were expanding and healthier diets were getting more popular. By that point, some people had started to see Ronald McDonald not as a sweet clown, but as a symbol of childhood obesity.
[SFX Clip: Old McDonald’s commercial with Ronald McDonald]
Other people thought that he was just plain creepy.
[SFX Clip: Creepier Ronald McDonald]
McDonald’s decided it was time to throw out the book and do something totally different.
[music in: Goldenface - “Yeah Yeah Yeah”]
So, in the early 2000s, McDonald’s launched an idea competition. Fourteen different ad agencies from around the world were asked to pitch a game-changing idea that could rejuvenate McDonald’s. For the first time ever, McDonald’s would use the single winning idea all over the world. They needed something special that would connect with people in every culture, and every language.
In Germany, an ad agency called Heye & Partner came up with the slogan, “Ich Liebe Es” which roughly translates to, “I’m Loving It”.
[music out]
The slogan was catchy, but the winning idea was supposed to include music. In order to bring this slogan to life, the agency reached out to a music production company called Mona Davis.
[music in A Classical Noir]
Tom: My name is Tom Batoy.
Franco: And my name is Franco Tortora, and we founded Mona Davis almost around 30 years ago.
This wasn’t Tom and Franco’s first encounter with McDonald’s. A few years earlier, they’d been involved in a different McDonald’s pitch. Buuut it was rejected.
Tom: We were so close. I mean, we were so close, but we lost it.
Franco: And at that point we said, “My God, next time we're gonna win it.”
So Tom and Franco set out to do what they do best: making music that connects with people.
Tom: First of all, in my opinion, you don't think about it too much. The more you think you can calculate what moves people, the more you're losing the emotion.
A few years earlier, they learned this lesson the hard way.
Franco: We had to develop an audio logo for Siemens, and they wanted to use the Fibonacci number. We had to do mathematical music, and in the end, it didn't really work out because it was like too constructed. There was no soul in it.
With McDonald’s, they knew they needed something with soul.
Franco: In the end, we said, “Okay, it has to be something really emotional.”
Tom: Something which moves people, or which touches people.
[music out]
Tom and Franco got to work. Putting the words “McDonald’s” and “I'm Lovin' It” to music came pretty easily, but they knew something was missing. They needed a hook. Then one night, inspiration struck.
[music in: “Soft and Way Up”]
Franco: You have to know that it was 2:30, 3:00 a.m. in the morning. So we were really, really tired. We already had a lot of white wine in us.
Franco: We tried hummings and different kinds of singing and singalongs. And then I think it was one of the creative directors who said, "Try something with ba-la-la-ba-ba” or whatever.
Franco: And we started to do that, and then somehow this melody came out [SFX: ba-da-ba-ba-ba] and I said, “Well, that's pretty nice”. And that was the point where we stopped the session, because nobody could listen to anything anymore.
The next morning they listened back, starting with the last recording of the night [SFX]. As soon as they heard it, they knew they’d found a winner.
Franco: It was pretty clear because we heard that and said, "Wow... that's good." And the other ones were not competitive to that.
Tom: It wasn't big science. It was basically more that you hear and you develop something, and then emotionally get grabbed. Always, with a lot of things we do, we get emotionally grabbed by something, and then we say, “Oh! That's the thing!”
Franco: So that's how it came to the “ba-da-ba-ba-ba…” yeah.
[music out]
Tom and Franco believed they had found the winning melody, but they had to convince McDonald’s, too. Part of the challenge was to show that this short, simple melody could work in every country and every possible musical style.
Tom: They were testing us, of course, and they were like, “Okay, well if there's Olympic games, or if there's a country song, or if there's whatever it is, can we use that and implement it in all our musical work we do worldwide?” That's what you had to prove.
Thankfully, the melody just worked.
Tom: With this melody, you can do actually everything, and you can like transform it in a lot of different musical styles.
Tom: From Japanese singing [SFX],
Tom: …to, like I said, Olympic games- [SFX]
Tom: …to Mexican [SFX]
Tom: We did it because we were so confident that it will work everywhere. I mean, they tested us really a lot, but we did it.
[music in “Just the Right Amount”]
Tom and Franco were at an advertising festival in France when they found out the big news: I’m Lovin’ It had won the idea competition. But instead of celebrating with the crowds around them, they hunkered down for days to hash out the deal.
Franco: It was the first week where Tom and I saw the sun only from inside of the hotels, not from the outside, because we had to develop long versions. We had to develop short versions. We had to develop costs. We had meetings like all the time. So we would just be sitting for a week in air conditioned rooms developing the realization of this campaign worldwide.
It turned out, composing the music for I’m Lovin’ It was the easy part. Now, they’d have to bring this jingle to fourteen different countries.
Tom: They said, "Oh yeah well, can you really manage to produce all countries?” And so we were like, "Alright, here we go!"
What came next would be the most intense project of their careers: Seven months, thousands of mixes, billions of listeners, and even some controversy with a few famous singers. That’s all coming up, after the break.
[music out]
***MIDROLL***
[SFX Clip: Put a smile on…]
McDonald’s has been using music to sell their brand since their very first TV commercial.
They’ve had some memorable songs... [SFX Clip: Put a smile on…]
Aaand they’ve also had not-so-memorable songs. [SFX Clip: Food, Folks and Fun...]
[music in “Just the Right Amount”]
These jingles helped McDonald’s become an international behemoth of fast food. But by 2002, business wasn’t great. Their stock price was falling, and people were looking for healthier options. As Fortune magazine said that year, quote “That good feeling has been Hamburglared."
To turn things around, McDonalds launched a massive campaign to find an idea they could use not just in the US, but all over the world. The winning idea combined the phrase “I’m Lovin’ It” with a catchy 5-note melody [SFX].
[music out]
Up to this point, McDonald’s had never done a fully global campaign before. Every country had their own marketing teams and agencies, and they were used to doing things their way. Tom and Franco had to get all of these teams on board with this new sound. And as you might imagine, it didn’t always go smoothly.
[music in Mr. Mole and Son (Blue Dot)]
Tom: We had these huge meetings and they had to tell them, “You have to stop all your work, because from now on, this will be the thing you have to incorporate in all your work. You have to use this no matter what."
Franco: We had to explain to the guys how to use the music. So two musicians tell thousands of Creative Directors and Client Directors what they should do.
Tom: They didn't like us. They didn't like that.
Some of these countries were just getting their own campaigns off the ground.
Tom: It was really sad because there were like countries, they produce the first TV spots and then somebody says, "No, get it to the trash."
Franco: And France also, they made a whole new campaign with a whole new music. They built up a national campaign and they had to break it. And they were really frustrated.
[music out]
Things only got more complicated from there. With this new campaign, McDonald’s wanted to do something completely different. Before they launched it as a jingle, they wanted I’m Lovin’ It to be a standalone hip-hop single. The idea was that people would develop a positive association with the song. Then, they’d be more receptive when they heard it in a commercial.
Back then, this kind of viral marketing was totally unheard of. To help them do it right, they turned to someone who knew the music industry inside and out.
Steve: The big break came for me when I was asked to work on McDonald’s I'm Lovin' It.
[music in “Odd Behavior”]
That’s Steve Stoute. Steve was in charge of pulling off this Trojan horse marketing strategy: first the song, then the ads.
Through the 90s, Steve had been a successful record executive, working with people like Will Smith and Nas. He’d seen how culture and technology were changing advertising in a way that older agencies weren’t keeping up with. These clips came from a video podcast series out of Duke University, called Left of Black.
Steve: They came from a generation where you could push culture down. You could just force a message on you.
Back when there were only three TV stations to choose from, this “one size fits all” approach made more sense.
Steve: So because you’ve got three national networks, you think it’s hard to force a message on people? If you just buy all three networks, you got them.
But then cable TV came along, and then satellite, and then the internet. Over the course of a few decades, we went from three channels to almost endless options. Advertisers had to get more creative, and Steve wanted to be the one to help them do it.
Steve: I am going to be the guy who translates what’s taking place in culture and help you promote your brand to the consumer in a culturally authentic, connective way.
[music out]
Using his connections in the music industry, Steve started bringing rappers into the studio. The first person they considered was pretty well known.
Tom: And they brought a very famous rap star in. I can't tell you the name really. I mean, I would love to. But a very famous rap star.
This particular rap star had a bit of a… rebellious reputation.
Tom: It was some problems involved in like drug using. I have to say it, you know I mean, for this rap star.
Eventually, McDonald’s decided to go with someone a little more squeaky clean: Justin Timberlake. At the time, Tom and Franco were pretty skeptical about that decision.
Tom: We always said, “Oh, he can't rap. He's a pop star. We don't think he can rap. I never heard him rapping."
Whether or not he could rap, there was no doubt that Justin Timberlake could bring some serious star power to the I’m Lovin’ It campaign. On the track, Justin was joined by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes. Together, they got to work transforming this short audio logo into a 4 minute pop single.
[SFX: I’m Lovin’ It single]
Months before the new ads were scheduled to release, the song mysteriously “leaked” online, and started getting picked up by radio stations. As intended, there was no mention of McDonald’s anywhere in the song. Instead, it featured fairly generic… umm… romantic lyrics, like this:
[Music clip: JT: Been working hard all week, Just trying to make your money, Girl go on and shake your booty, I'm lovin' it, I'm lovin' it, I’m lovin it…]
After the song had started to circulate, McDonald’s announced their partnership with Justin. Of course, most of his fans had no idea that the song they’d been hearing was conceived by McDonald’s. This Trojan horse strategy was already working.
By this point, Tom and Franco were completely exhausted.
[music in Feelin Alright (Instruments)]
Tom: It was seven months daily where you sleep about five hours. You have conference calls which take about 12 hours where you have a guy sitting beside you while you're sleeping, waking you up if the topic is interesting for you. It was crazy.
Tom: You have to understand, it's not just one thing for the whole world, no, it's thousands of things for the world. I mean, just the mixing amount, the final versions when it came out were 3,700 mixes.
You heard that right: three thousand seven hundred final mixes. After all that work, “I’m Lovin’ It” was ready for the world.
[music boosts Feelin Alright Full Mix]
In late 2003, McDonald’s launched the I’m Lovin’ It ad campaign. The ads included Justin Timberlake flirting on a rooftop, breakdancers, skateboarders, surfers, BMX bikers... and a few cheeseburgers.
All of the commercials used a version of the Justin Timberlake song, with additional rap verses that varied by country. In America, the raps were performed by Pusha T and his brother No Malice.
[Music clip: Debut commercial]
Here’s what it sounded like in Russia. [Music clip: I’m Lovin’ It Russia]
Here’s the Spanish version. [Music clip: I’m Lovin’ It Spanish]
And here’s the Bulgarian version. [Music clip: I’m Lovin It Bulgaria]
Finally, right after the ad campaign, the “I’m Lovin’ It” single was officially released. It reached the top 20 in many European countries, and was a number one hit in Belgium. In the US, it made it into the Top 100. Soon after, Justin embarked on a sponsored tour of the US and Europe called “McDonald's Presents: Justin Timberlake Lovin' It Live.”
[music in: “Jokers” (Marmoset)]
After the campaign had launched, Tom and Franco could finally take a break. At that point, they were pretty sick of hearing that melody.
Franco: I slept for a week. And I think I was off for a couple of weeks because I couldn't hear the melody anymore. I couldn't hear the word McDonald's anymore. So it was pretty hard.
Tom: I didn't speak for two weeks. I didn't speak, and I speak a lot. If you are surrounded with a melody for such a long time and with such intensity, you just want to get rid of that melody. Because it dominates your brain, and whenever you hear something like that, it's, “Oh my God, no.”
[SFX: Nightmarish repetition of the melody]
Tom: It takes some time to recover.
Franco: That’s true. It took me like two months or three months til I really was back in track and I could be proud of it.
[music out]
But all of that work paid off big time for McDonald’s. The I’m Lovin It campaign was originally scheduled to run for just two years. Now, more than two decades later, it’s still going strong. Since it launched, McDonald’s has gone all-in on this campaign, to the point where they’re paying superstars to record it.
There was this version by Destiny’s Child. [Music clip: Destiny’s Child audio logo]
They’ve done one about the Travis Scott meal [Music clip: The Travis Scott meal…]
And they’ve done the Cardi B and Offset meal. [Music clip: Mmm! Let’s eat…]
They’ve even licensed animated characters like Donkey from Shrek… [Donkey clip] the Minions... [SFX clip: Minions clip] and Kung Fu Panda [Kung Fu Panda clip]
In 2020, they started running commercials featuring actor Brian Cox.
[clip: McDonald’s Fry-Day commercial]
Some of you adults might know him as Logan Roy from Succession.
[clip: Succession]
These ads usually end with Brian Cox humming the jingle.
[Brian Cox ba da ba ba ba]
Over the years, this audio logo has also had its fair share of controversy. In an interview with Hot 97 radio, Steve Stoute credited Pusha T with creating I’m Lovin’ It.
[music in: For We Shall Know Speed (Blue Dot)]
Steve: You know who did that? Pusha T. That’s crazy that Pusha T wrote the song for McDonald’s.
While Pusha T did have a verse on one of the first commercials, he claimed to have written the entire jingle. As he told Rolling Stone, quote “I am solely responsible for the I’m Lovin‘ It swag and the jingle of that company. That’s just real. I am the reason.” Endquote.
Tom: When I heard that, I was like, “What?” because Pusha T was basically a background singer in this crowd of Pharrell.
According to Pusha T, he and his brother were paid a flat fee of about a half million or a million dollars for their involvement in I’m Lovin’ It. But since he allegedly created the jingle, he felt he should be getting royalties for the entire campaign.
Tom: It got public very fast and especially in the net, but it's proven that we did it.
Franco: He was just another one who claimed to be the composer.
Tom: I mean, we had court cases because people were accusing us that we stole the melody, And we won, of course, every one. But people think they can make a lot of money.
[music out]
But Pusha T wasn’t ready to let go of his beef with McDonald’s. In 2022, he partnered with Arby’s for a commercial called Crispy Fish Diss. It featured a song where Pusha T trash talks the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwich, while hyping up Arby’s Crispy Fish Sandwich.
[clip: Pusha T - Crispy Fish Diss]
In case it wasn’t clear, the song ends with this disclaimer.
[clip: Pusha T - Crispy Fish Diss ending]
And it didn’t stop there. Six months later, Pusha T blessed the world with another fast food anthem. This time around, he was dissing the McRib, and promoting Aby’s Real Country-Style Rib Sandwich.
[clip: Pusha T - Rib Roast]
McDonald’s never publicly responded to these diss tracks. But on Jimmy Fallon, they parodied the situation, and ran a sketch where Ronald McDonald claps back with a rap of his own.
Jimmy Fallon: It’s pretty crazy, well McDonald’s isn’t taking it lightly. In fact, they made their own diss track about Arby’s. And now, here to perform it live is Ronald McDonald.
Ronald on Fallon: I heard you got meats, well we got the beats. I heard what you said, so now we got beef. Your food is a joke, it’s super obscene, I’m gonna leave you broken like a ice cream machine.
[record scratch out]
The lyrics get a little spicy after that, so we’ll just stop it there. But it turns out that Pusha T isn’t the only celebrity who’s had second thoughts about this campaign.
Despite a reported six million dollar payment for his involvement, Justin Timberlake says he now regrets the deal. In an interview with GQ, Justin said that McDonald’s stock quote “went up by 25 percent when I walked into those offices and changed their image.”
[music in: Noir by Red Licorice]
Now, celebrities wanting a bigger piece of the pie is a testament to just how successful I’m Lovin’ It has been for McDonald’s. It’s one of the biggest and longest running marketing campaigns of all time… up there with Nike’s “Just Do It” and Apple’s “Think Different.” McDonalds’ Chief Marketing Officer went as far as calling I’m Lovin’ It “a multi-billion dollar asset.”
These days, you don’t actually hear the words “I’m Lovin It” in McDonald’s commercials as much as you used to. Most of the time, you just hear those five iconic notes. The melody really does work in every musical style and context. For something that seems so simple, it’s brilliant.
Tom: It's not just playing songs, it's not just playing music, it's that people get touched. It’s an international language.
Franco: Music is about time, and place, and moods. And so, a lot of things come together to make music magic. And you never can really say when the moment is.
[music out]
[music in: Funky Nights]
Twenty Thousand Hertz is hosted by me, Dallas Taylor, and produced out of the sound design studios of Defacto Sound. For some sonic inspiration, follow Defacto Sound on Instagram, or visit defactosound.com
Other Voices: This episode was written and produced by Fran Board, and Casey Emmerling, with help from Sam Schneble. It was edited and sound designed by Soren Begin, Colin DeVarney, and Jade Dickey.
Thanks to our guests, Tom Batoy and Franco Tortora, from the Mona Davis music production company. You can learn more about their work at Mona Davis dot com.
Subscribe to my Youtube channel, Dallas Taylor dot mp3, to see me go behind the scenes at incredible sound locations around the world. You can also find me on Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook and LinkedIn under that same name, Dallas Taylor dot mp3.
Thanks for listening.
[music out]
