Thanks McDonald's, I'll have your Nyan Cat tribute stuck in my head all day

Remember Nyan Cat? Of course, you do. The three-minute pixel art animation showing a cat riding a rainbow was the kind of thing that took the internet by storm back in 2011, and it quickly became a global meme. 

Now, Mcdonald's has brought it back; or at least its soundtrack. The cause? The promotion of the fastfood brand's 'Shakashaka' fries in Japan, and it's another example of the success of McDonald's advertising.

The McDonald's Japan X account shared an ad featuring an anime-style girl with cat ears and a tail dancing to the unmistakable sound of virtual singer Hatsune Miku's Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya, the song that accompanied the legendary Nyan Cat animation. 'Nyan', is an onomatopoeic word equivalent to 'meow' in Japanese, but in the new McDonald's ad, the lyrics of the song are changed to say 'shakashaka' ('shake-shake').  The piece was animated by Hamafugu.

What are 'Shakashaka' fries exactly? They're simply fries that come with a little packet of seasoning that you shake into the bag. The ads show the 'Shakagirl' demonstrating how to do that in time with the music. And it seems to have gone down well, nothing up almost 11 million views at the time of writing.

If you don't remember the original Nyan Cat, here it is in all its glory:

Fans will be pleased to see the legacy of Nyan Cat live on. The last big news around the sensation was when its creator Chris Torres auctioned a remastered GIF of the video as an NFT to coincide with the airborne mog's 10th anniversary in 2021.

It's not the first time that McDonald's Japan has tapped into Japan's love of anime for its campaigns. Last September, there was a McDonald's campaign with clear Studio Ghibli vibes, and earlier this year it paid tribute to the fictional WcDonald's from the anime series Cat's Eye.