Who would have guessed that pulling a prank on corporate giant McDonald’s would land the two Filipino American college students a job working for the world’s best-known food franchise?
University of Houston students Jevh Maravilla and Christian Toledo were guests on the Ellen Show Monday where the host, Ellen DeGeneres, surprised both students with a $25,000 check from McDonald’s. Not only that, but Ellen also shared they would be featured in an upcoming marketing campaign for the hamburger chain.
The two became internet celebrities last month when they created a fake McDonald’s poster featuring them, which they hung on the wall of one of the fast food brand’s outlets in Pearland, Texas.
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They told DeGeneres that they were inspired by the movie Crazy Rich Asians, which portrayed Asians and Asian Americans in a new contemporary light. “Crazy Rich Asians is a big influence on me,” said Maravilla. “I watched it three times.”
“Because we want to be crazy middle class (Asians])” joked Toledo.
Miravilla and Toledo were in their local McDonald’s when they noticed that there were no Asians in the posters depicting McDonald employees and customers that were on display in the fast food outlet.
They told DeGeneres of their elaborate scheme of making a fake poster featuring the two of them holding McDonald’s products, and then surreptitiously hanging it on an empty wall in their favorite McDonald’s.
The imposter poster hung in the restaurant for 51 days before the students revealed the prank through their social media. Instead of taking the students to court and tearing down the poster, the franchise left the poster up and congratulated Toledo and Maravilla for a job well done.
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