2021 Wrap-Up: The Top Fast Food Merch Stories of the Year

By The Promo Marketing Staff

After the supply chain, if there was one topic that dominated the headlines in 2021, it was the absolute explosion of branded merchandise from fast food and quick-service restaurants. This has been building for awhile, but it feels like it came to a head this year.

The way food chains have borrowed from each other, one-upped each other and found new ways to brand themselves in 2021 has been a lot of fun to watch, and even more fun to report on as we witness the continued branded merchandise revolution in this vertical.

If you forgot some of the biggest, strangest and tastiest stories from this year, consider this your opportunity to come back for seconds.

1. Sonic Buried an Ad for 99-Cent Fleece Wrap in a 9-Minute Video of a Guy Eating

The title is pretty self explanatory here. Sonic released a video of a dude eating a new menu item for nine minutes, and then at the end was all like, "Oh, by the way, you can get a fleece wrap that looks like this Fritos Chili Cheese Jr. Wrap for 99 cents. Get after it."

People did get after it, as it sold out quickly. Now we watch videos of people eating until the very end like we're waiting for the post-credits Marvel scene to tease the next movie.

2. Dunkin' Teams Up With TikTok's Biggest Star for Merch Collection

If you want to reach younger consumers, there's no better place to find them than on TikTok, where they spend roughly 92.3% of their waking hours (estimated). Dunkin' knows this, and partnered with Charli D'Amelio—she of 111.6 million followers—for a limited branded merchandise collection that went appropriately viral.

3. Chipotle Sold Out of Branded Makeup

Speaking of selling out quickly, Chipotle made a line of branded makeup modeled after menu items. Apparently people really wanted to get spicy with their makeup routines, because they sold out fast. Chipotle introduced a lot of branded products this year, and went above and beyond with its e-commerce presence, setting a high bar for competitors.

4. Behind the Scenes of McDonald's Mobile Ordering Merch

In this edition of "Decoration Diaries," we got a behind-the-scenes look at how IMS LLC worked on an apparel campaign for McDonald's. It involved multiple items with various decoration requirements, which required a good bit of reviewing and quality control to get right.

5. White Castle 100th Anniversary Apparel

This year, White Castle turned 100. To celebrate a century of teeny tiny little burgers, the brand collaborated with the fashion label TELFAR to create a limited edition line of uniforms, and used real-life employees as models to show off the new duds in New York City.

6. Dunkin' Releases Branded House Paint

People love their Dunkies, man. Especially on the East Coast, the phrase "America Runs on Dunkin'" is pretty true. Some people are apparently so passionate about it that they want to paint their walls in the restaurant's pink and orange color scheme.

7. Reusable Packaging Becomes a Viable Option for the Future

As companies like Burger King and Starbucks released plans for reusable packaging and drinkware, we got a look at what the future of fast food might look like. It's not commonplace worldwide just yet, but as sustainability spreads in business, we can see these products becoming the norm sooner rather than later.

8. People Really Bought Greasy Bags on eBay

Until we get to the point where reusable and returnable fast food packaging is the standard way of doing things, we're going to see stories like this, where BTS fans buy greasy, used McDonald's paper bags just because it has the K-pop band's logo on it.

9. Wendy's Reinvents the Beanbag Chair for the Meme Age

Most of us left beanbag chairs in childhood and adolescence, but Wendy's is making a strong case for us to reintroduce them into our home decor. The BOGO $1 Big Brain Bean Bag Chair—based on a meme—has all of the back support we adults need on a daily basis.

And for those of us whose hair isn't what it used to be, it comes with Wendy's trademark red hair that slips right over our heads. No one will know it's fake.

10. A&W Focuses on Brand Awareness With Expensive Promo Line

A lot of promotional products are appealing because of their low price point. A&W went the opposite route with a promotional apparel line, choosing expensive choices like boots and jackets with the goal not to make money from the sales, but to boost the restaurant's perception and drive new business.

11. Arby's Recruits RB's

You know by now that we're suckers for good word play. Arby's took advantage of the NCAA's new name, image and likeness rules by sending college running backs branded kits in exchange for going on social media and declaring themselves Arby's RB's.