One for the ARMYs: Creative Upcycling of the BTS Meal
Light it up like dynamite!
Korean Pop (K-pop) Boyband BTS lit everyone’s world up like dynamite when they released their collaboration with fast food restaurant McDonald’s: a “BTS Meal” consisted of 10 pieces of chicken nuggets with special sauces — sweet chili and cajun, fries, and coke. The chosen set of McDonald’s food was said to be the members’ usual orders when eating in the food chain.
The meal has a uniquely designed packaging, as the usual brown paper bag, food box, and drinking cup were designed and peppered with the famous symbol of BTS. In the Philippines alone, the meal became trending, as ARMYs — the name for the BTS fans — immediately ordered and tried the meal upon its release.
BTS is undeniably one of the biggest names in the entertainment industry today. From their debut in 2010, the boy group remarkably became famous within Asia and had their international breakthrough in 2017. Since then, the band appeared on cover pages of various magazines worldwide, featured and interviewed by numerous news sites, and collaborated with tons of international and Western personalities.
This popularity also meant reaching more people around the world, gaining more followers and fans. Currently, BTS is one of the music icons that have an extremely present fanbase online. And, being a part of this fanbase or any fanbase of famous personalities means being a part of a community, whether virtual or physical. The connections and influences within the ARMYs show through how they all make the boy group trend almost every week, more so when BTS won awards or when they are about to release a new song or album.
As fans, they have to have souvenirs or memorabilia of their idols. The BTS Meal somehow served as another merchandise or “merch” for the ARMYs. This made the fans preserve what can be preserved in the meal, such as its unique packaging. That’s why, together with the famous meal, creative upcycling ways of the packaging (or reusing of things to have a higher value) also went viral online.
Upcycling the packaging did not just benefit the ARMYs so they can preserve a memory of the meal. It also positively reduced the wastes from the certain upsurge of sales of the meal, avoiding the expected effect of an increase in the garbage.
To fully appreciate the creative upcycling projects appearing all over the net, here are some of the creatively repurposed BTS Meal packaging done by fans (at most):
1. Sneakers
2. Necklace
3. Bag
4. Phone Case
5. Tumbler
6. Kid’s Dress
These creative upcycling projects reduced what could have been tons of trash produced from the increased sales of the BTS Meal. Of course, it also reinforced, on a larger scale, the idea of repurposing things that are to be discarded. Being a part of an online or physical community is powerful, especially when done right.