McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese scented candle, produced by McDonald’s Canada in 2020 as part of the brand’s “fresh beef” relaunch campaign. Conceived as a limited promotional object rather than a retail product, the candle translates one of the most globally recognizable fast-food items into a domestic, lifestyle artifact. Its scent is designed to evoke the full Quarter Pounder experience—beef, cheese, sesame bun, pickles, and onions—collapsing fast food, branding, and sensory memory into a single object.

Both absurd and self-aware, the candle functions as a contemporary Pop artifact: a multinational corporation deliberately parodying its own iconography while embracing the logic of collectible culture. By turning a mass-produced burger into a candle—an object traditionally associated with intimacy, calm, and luxury—McDonald’s creates a striking inversion of speed, consumption, and ritual. The result sits somewhere between advertising ephemera, conceptual multiple, and brand sculpture.

Originally distributed in very limited quantities through McDonald’s Canada online channels and promotions, the Quarter Pounder candle quickly became a viral and highly sought-after object. Today, it is collected not as functional home fragrance, but as a cultural marker of late-capitalist branding, corporate self-mythology, and the growing overlap between marketing, design, and contemporary art.

[Disclaimer: Due to the age of this product and multiple overseas transports, its chemical composition may have altered over time. We take no responsibility for any use involving human consumption. This item is sold strictly as an artwork and collectible object. It should be considered, handled, and appreciated solely in that context.]