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One of the biggest moments of Justin Timberlake‘s career was a song in a McDonald’s advertisement. The “4 Minutes” star regretted this decision. Regardless, he still felt the ads proved he was a trendsetter.

Justin Timberlake said he shouldn’t have taken McDonald’s desire to use his song seriously

Jingles aren’t art, but there’s an art to making a jingle. Some advertisements worked so well that they just became a part of the wider culture. One of them was the phrase “ba da ba ba ba, I’m lovin’ it.” If you went to McDonald’s in the 2000s, you thought of that song.

Chances are you assumed that song was another anonymous jingle. In fact, it was a Timberlake song called “I’m Lovin’ It.” Adding to the star power, the track was produced by Pharrell Williams. The song endeared the McDonald’s brand to millions of small kids as much as Happy Meals did. That’s a huge deal that is impacting McDonald’s today.

During a 2007 interview with GQ, Timberlake compared the McDonald’s ad campaign that used his song to the Grammys, but this was not a favorable comparison. Timberlake must lead a charmed life if he can see major ad campaigns and Grammy Awards as no big deal. A reporter congratulated Timberlake on his Grammy win. “Oh, thanks very much, man,” he sighed. “Well, listen, I used to care about those awards and trophies … maybe when I was younger. Come on, it’s all just a load of bulls***, right?”

Justin Timberlake felt the commercials showed that he was a huge star

The “Selfish” singer felt that he should have taken both “I’m Lovin’ It” and the Grammys too seriously. “I view the Grammys the same way as I see my deal with McDonald’s,” he explained. “I regret the McDonald’s deal. I don’t regret doing the Grammys entirely, but I wish I hadn’t put so much of myself into it.”

Timberlake still used both McDonald’s and the Grammys to brag about himself a little bit. “It’s kind of interesting,” he said. “Just like the McDonald’s deal, whose market share went up by 25% when I walked into those offices and changed their image; when I did the Grammys, the viewing figures went up by 25%. Hmm, funny, isn’t it?”

It might be hard to remember now, but Timberlake was once one of the biggest stars on the face of the earth. With the album Justified, he shed his boy band past and became a megastar on his own. Later, his record FutureSex/LoveSounds proved to critics that he was one of the most versatile and experimental pop stars of the 2000s, and he inspired imitators like Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes. While his new music isn’t getting a lot of love, his place in pop history is still notable. 

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McDonald’s didn’t make the song a hit

While “I’m Lovin’ It” is one of the most famous songs of the 2000s, it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The charts don’t always reflect the popularity of a song. The track appeared on the album Live from London. That record didn’t impact the Billboard 200. Either Americans don’t like hearing live albums or they don’t like hearing albums recorded in London or both.

Regardless of what Timberlake thought about it in hindsight, his McDonald’s deal made one of his songs incredibly famous.

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