Good Influencer/Bad Influencer?

I'm going to share this week's story with you in the form of a question that's been dividing the marketing world on Twitter:

Did Kyle Scheele and the Kum & Go brand do anything wrong when they partnered up to create the Kyle Scheele Meale?

Background: Two weeks ago we shared the story of Kyle Scheele, a popular TikTok-er who put a life-sized cardboard cutout of himself in a convenience store just to see if he could get away with it. The video of his prank went fully viral and (according to his post) the company spontaneously embraced his idea and created a meal named after him.

The twist: Adweek discovered that the campaign may not have been as organic as they let on.

It turns out that Kum & Go, a midwest US-based convenience store chain, had set out to get into the celebrity meal game the same way that McDonalds did with Travis Scott, and Tim Horton's has recently done with Justin Bieber. Kum & Go doesn't have McDonald's money, however, and had to get more creative, so they reached out to a semi-famous funny guy on TikTok.

They planned to have their "celebrity" create a skit where he'd place a poster of himself in the store in an attempt to make the whole thing feel authentic and spontaneous. The plan, all along, had been to market and sell a collab meal.

Kyle's TikTok videos got millions of views, and people lined up at Kum & Go to purchase the meal that they believed they had played a small part in creating. He has since posted an apology/explanation video where he effectively tells his audience that yes, it was all planned, but the fun they had along the way was all improvised and real. Watch the video here.

So, I'll return back to my question: Was this a brilliant viral marketing campaign, or a deceptive advertising stunt?

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting