McDonald’s Corp.
MCD,
plans to create a spinoff restaurant brand called CosMc’s sometime in 2024, with a perhaps-familiar alien starring as its mascot.
CosMc is a retro McDonald’s character that appeared in ads in the 1980s and 1990s. CosMc was a part-space creature and part-machine, and loved McDonald’s food. And it joined the McDonaldland fictional fantasy world where McDonald’s mascot Ronald McDonald and his friends live.
“CosMc’s is a small format concept with all the DNA of McDonald’s, but with its own unique personality,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said during the company’s earnings call on Thursday.
Coincidentally, the McDonald’s announcement came on the heels of a special House subcommittee holding a “UFO hearing” on Capitol Hill this week, where a former intelligence officer turned whistleblower testified under oath that he’s certain the U.S. government is in possession of “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” also known as unidentified flying objects or UFOs.
CosMc’s will debut in “a limited geography” sometime in early 2024, McDonald’s executives said, and more details about those plans will be revealed at its investor day in December.
Representatives for McDonald’s did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment on this story.
See also: McDonald’s profit beats analyst expectations, stock rise
This is the just the latest example of the burger chain bringing back one if its retro character. McDonald’s recently added a Grimace-themed item to the menu, inspired by another old mascot; a giant, purple creature named Grimace. The Grimace Birthday Meal, which included a purple milkshake, went viral on social media platforms including TikTok and Instagram.
Bringing back Grimace seemed to be a recipe for success. While McDonald’s did not disclose exact sales figures of the Grimace meal, Guillaume Huin, the company’s marketing director, posted on LinkedIn that the Grimace trend reached billions of people on social media, and led to millions of engagements and mentions.
During McDonald’s latest earnings call, the company cited “successful restaurant level execution, culturally relevant brand and marketing campaigns and continued digital and delivery growth” as reasons for recent success.
Other restaurant chains have also attempted spinoffs in recent years. In February, Chipotle Mexican Grill
CMG,
announced plans to open a single location of its spinoff Farmesa in Santa Monica, Calif., for example, and Golden Corral is opening a fast casual concept called Homeward Kitchen in Southern Pines, N.C., later this year.
McDonald’s stock moved 2.06% higher as of Thursday afternoon’s trading and is up 13.11% to date in 2023.
This story originally appeared on Marketwatch
