By Steve Moran
Buying a Grimace shake from McDonald’s and then staging a “horror movie” tableau is the hottest current trend on TikTok.
Senior living has completely ignored it.
Who Cares?
Senior living is seen by most as something that is grim, boring, sad, and unfun, by potential residents and potential workers. And maybe they are right ….
This has a huge potential for some senior living communities to create their own Grimace dark humor videos and be seen as worth a second look.
In Case You Missed It
McDonald’s, I am sure, had no idea that releasing and promoting the Grimace shake in order to celebrate the mascot’s birthday would turn into a massive, trending “grim” TikTok video craze. The most viewed videos have millions of views.
McDonald’s has completely embraced what is happening to them — or actually, maybe not so much. Not their real CMO:
@mattxshaver The response to the Grimace Shake has been so positive that I thought I’d try it myself! Thank you everyone!! #grimaceshake #mcdonalds #grimace ♬ Corporate Music – AndrisMusic
There are hundreds, with more being made daily, but that does not mean it is too late for you.
Deep Dive
I get why senior living is reluctant. We are serving a group of people who are in their last few years, months, weeks, and in some cases days. The data suggests that as people get close to death, they are mostly at peace with it happening and that a sense of humor is one of those things we hang on to when we grow older, even as we approach death.
When we avoid doing this, we are simply pretending that something that is true is not true. I can pretty much guarantee that if you suggested making a Grimace video to your residents, a significant number of them would love doing it.
I went searching to see if I could find a single Grimace shake video done by a senior living community and couldn’t find a single one. How about you being the first?
Our own Abbie Richie, who hosts Tech Tuesday,jumped on the trend …
The End Result
- Residents and team members doing something together
- Fun in the face of death and dying
- Publicity
- Being more attractive to residents and team members.
Photo credit: Today.
