Justin Timberlake 'regretted' $6 million McDonald's deal
Rachael Davis
Featured Image Credit: Mathew Imaging/Contributor/Getty Images
You’ve no doubt heard the McDonald’s jingle for ‘I’m lovin’ it’ countless times.
If you need it a reminder, it goes: ‘Bah-bah bah bah baaaaaaaah - I’m lovin’ it!’
It’s a pretty simple melody that’s becoming synonymous with the golden arches over the past couple of decades, but do you know who originally released it?
Well, it was none other than former The All New Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer Justin Timberlake.
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The former NSYNC legend has released countless hit tracks and albums, made plenty of movie appearances such as in David Fincher’s The Social Network, Shrek the Third, and In Time which, incidentally, missed a trick by not being named Justin Time.
And he’s also left an indelible impression on the fast food world by contributing the ‘I’m lovin’ it’ jingle to countless McDonald’s campaigns.
Back in 2003, Timberlake was involved in what would be McDonald’s first-ever global marketing message as ‘I’m lovin’ it’ was spawned. He sang the original vocals, with Pharrell Williams being credited as the writer.
What followed was an ‘I’m lovin’ it’-backed marketing blitz to the tune of $1.37 billion (£1bn) spent in the following year, and the full Justin Timberlake single released on a three-track EP that topped the charts in Belgium.
McDonald’s originally ran the jingle in five commercials translated across 11 languages, and US commercials announced in September 2023 featured appearances from Timberlake and rap duo Clipse (Pusha T and Malice).
The wider deal also saw McDonald’s sponsor one of Timberlake’s European tours, seeing him rake in a New York Times-estimated $6 million (£4.5mn).
However, despite being tied to a jingle that’s become permanently lodged in billions of brains, and making a fair bob in the process, Timberlake told British GQ in 2007: “I regret the McDonald’s deal.”
He didn’t elaborate on why at the time – although you can imagine that an artist might have started to feel a bit weird about a corporate machine having its wicked way with one of their tracks – but he did equate the deal to a Grammys appearance that saw him miss out on an Album of the Year award.
"I view the Grammys the same way as I see my deal with McDonald's," he told GQ. "I regret the McDonald's deal. I don't regret doing the Grammys entirely but I wish I hadn't put so much of myself into it.
“It's kind of interesting. Just like the McDonald's deal, whose market share went up by 25% when I walked into those offices and changed their image; when I did the Grammys, the viewing figures went up by 25%. Hmm, funny isn't it?"
Timberlake has won 10 Grammys across his career thus far, so perhaps he’s since cooled on his misgivings with the awards show.