Indonesia branches forced to shut due to high BTS meal orders

Daily US Times: What happens when you combine BTS, the world’s biggest boyband with McDonald’s, one of the world’s most popular burger chains? Complete and utter chaos, it seems.

Indonesian branches of McDonald’s experinece that too. The popular fast food chain found themselves so swamped with demand for the newly launched BTS Meal they had to close.

Indeed, so many people ordered the meal inspired by the BTS, an extremely popular Korean boyband, that there were fears it could cause a new Covid hotspot.

Fajar Purwoto, the Indonesian city’s public order agency head, said: “We temporarily closed four of six McDonald’s stores here in Semarang for a couple of days.”

“I don’t want Semarang to be in the Covid-19 red zone again,” he added.

To the uninitiated, this may all seem a bit of an overreaction to a meal consisting of chips, 10 chicken nuggets, a coke, two sauces (sweet chilli and Cajun, for those who are interested).

But that is underestimating the enormous BTS phenomenon. The boyband’s last single Butter broke global records when it premiered last month, while they beat superstars like Taylor Swift to be named best-selling album of 2020.

Millions of their fans all around the world – are exceedingly loyal, and protective. Using the BTS brand in the wrong way can mean trouble, as one South Korean MP found out this week.

Ryu Ho-jeong, South Korea’s youngest MP, used an image of tattooed BTS member Jungkook on Tuesday to make a point about easing restrictions on tattooing. But BTS fans were angry she had used the picture, saying she had dragged the star into politics. On Thursday, she apologised, after facing widespread criticism on social media.

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