Fans Dub McDonald’s Mascot Grimace an LGBTQ Icon After Making Return in New Ad Campaign

A new ad campaign featuring McDonald’s mascot Grimace has turned him into an online sensation and LGBTQ icon.

Last week, McDonald’s celebrated the fuzzball’s birthday with a purple Grimace shake, making his popularity sore.

Fans were able to purchase a birthday meal, which consisted of ten-piece nuggets or a Big Mac with fries to go along with the now-viral purple milkshake.

Over the past few days, the iconic mascot took over the company’s Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages as part of its new campaign.

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On Instagram, the purple fuzzball shared a post with fans that said, “wanna come 2 my party???? finallyy got my own grimace meal and purple shake.” In another post, he said, “unrelatedd but do i (grimace) look like a purple bloater plss be honest.”

In 2021, Brian Bates, a manager of a Mcdonald’s in Windsor, Canada, revealed that Grimace was “an enormous taste bud” whose purpose was to show that food tastes good.

According to a McDonald’s spokesperson, “The best part about Grimace is that he means different things to different people. Whatever he is, we’re just proud our bestie makes people happy.”

Fans have been speculating that the celebration for Grimace had something to do with June also being Pride Month.

“HEY GRIMACE HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND HAPPY PRIDE,” one user tweeted.

According to the Washingtonian, Grimace was first introduced to McDonald’s cast of characters in 1971, but he was a monster with four arms who stole milkshakes.