Since Queen Elizabeth II passed away early on Friday morning, there’s been no shortage of memorials celebrating her life. However, as is custom when public perception points are up for grabs, corporate brands have also joined in. Here are our favourite out of pocket examples of brands attempting to honour the queen with… mixed results.
Macca’s, or as those weirdos in the UK call it “McDonald’s”, went for the truly rogue “in memoriam ordering station”. It was, in a word, a choice.
This self-checkout screen was spotted at a McDonald’s franchise in the UK and instantly went batshit viral. It netted over 184,000 likes at the time of writing.
Put this image in an art gallery pic.twitter.com/untap95Jud
— Peter Ryan (@_PeterRyan) September 9, 2022
Diverting from its usual posting schedule of “here’s our latest hamburger”-style Tweets, McDonald’s’ followers couldn’t resist poking fun at another extremely earnest break from tradition.
Bring the Breakfast Wrap back, it’s what she would of wanted!
— Sam Vipond (@SamVipond90) September 9, 2022
But just when you thought Macca’s UK was the weird one, Maccas New Zealand made a late charge for the “most cursed” award.
It’s the golden arches flag at half-mast for us.
The fucking McDonald’s flag at half-mast 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/TgY2jpMwFn
— Soph (@homophie) September 9, 2022
In a similar vein to McDonald’s, Domino’s UK posted an in memoriam message on its Twitter.
It also changed its colour scheme to black and white. How considerate.
— Domino’s Pizza UK (@Dominos_UK) September 8, 2022
You have to wonder: did brands have these planned in advance? How far in advance?
Who decided the apparent Pretty Little Thing “Remembering Her Majesty” edit was appropriate?
I can’t believe I downloaded the app to check this but…
PLT ACTUALLY HAVE A “REMEMBERING HER MAJESTY” EDIT!!!
😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/EJGnsI3O4J— Dr Brett Staniland (@TwinBrett_) September 9, 2022
Up next in our list of cursed corporate queen memorials is this effort by Ann Summers, a UK lingerie chain.
TBF, this one’s probably just down to web design. We’ve all been there we guess.
Open for a surprise pic.twitter.com/MZ24tD5Dcd
— Summer Ray (@SummerRay) September 8, 2022
Meanwhile, over in London’s West End theatre district, two shows posted gushing memorials without a single sliver of irony.
what are these musicals about again pic.twitter.com/csjf70GCle
— sophia ✨ (@musicallaneous) September 8, 2022
For context, Hamilton is a musical about US settlers fighting to overthrow British rule and achieve independence.
Les Misérables is loosely based on the June Rebellion where French Republicans attempted to overthrow their own ruling monarchy.
Les Mis promptly deleted its tweet after being called out online, but of course there are still #receipts.
Some brands were roasted for their queen memorials simply ‘cos it was wild they did a tribute in the first place.
One such example is toy manufacturer Playmobil which tweeted what is apparently (?) a figurine of the queen (??) in tasteful black and white (???).
Rest in Peace 🖤 Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022 pic.twitter.com/eou217S8SZ
— PLAYMOBIL (@playmobil) September 8, 2022
But perhaps the wildest memorial tweet of all was this gem from the one and only Crazy Frog.
R.I.P. The Queen 🕯️
— Crazy Frog (@TrueCrazyFrog) September 8, 2022
Who on EARTH at the Crazy Frog PR team thought “heck yeah, let’s weigh in on this one. This is our moment. Ring ding ding ding ding ding”.
Don’t even get us STARTED on the candle emoji. It’s giving “Press F to pay respects”. We kinda love it.
Okay, that’s just about enough corporate queen memorials for one day. Gonna play some Crazy Frog and chill out.
If you’re keen for a bit more corporate cringe, check out our Pride Month corporate cringe compilation here.
