# Painfully Thick Painfully Thick started as a McDonald's advertising slogan for their milkshakes and later took on a second life online as a reaction image and Drakeposting template. The phrase found new meaning once thicc hit slang vocabulary, giving the ad copy an accidental double meaning that anime and meme communities ran with through the late 2010s. ## Origin The McDonald's ad ran Painfully Thick as a straight sell for how dense their milkshakes were. The earliest saved commentary appeared on November 30, 2009 from Falkon Digital, who flagged a Painfully Thick billboard placed directly next to a L'Oreal ad featuring Cheryl Cole[2]. The unfortunate side-by-side placement is what got the phrase circulating in the first place, since neither the ad agency nor McDonald's created the meme themselves. - **Platform:** McDonald's ad campaign (source) / Reddit (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2009 ## Overview The joke hinges on a collision between McDonald's straight-faced billboard copy and the thicc slang term that spread through internet English in the mid-2010s[1]. Reaction versions pair the phrase with images of curvy characters, oversized food, or dense-looking objects, letting the ad copy carry the punchline on its own. The format also fed into Drakeposting variants, where Painfully Thick sat in the second panel as a mock stamp of approval on whatever the poster was hyping up[2]. Anime communities did the heaviest lifting with it, tacking the McDonald's photo onto edits of visual novel characters and Fate/Grand Order fanart. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Painfully Thick? A McDonald's milkshake ad slogan that turned into a reaction image and Drakeposting template in the late 2010s, mostly used in anime meme circles[2]. ### Where did Painfully Thick come from? A McDonald's billboard campaign advertising thick milkshakes; the earliest saved online post about it came from Falkon Digital on November 30, 2009[2]. ### What does Painfully Thick mean? In the ad it described the milkshake's texture, but online it plays on the thicc slang term for curvy or heavy-bodied[1]. ### How do you use Painfully Thick? Pair the ad photo with an image of an oversized or curvy subject, or slot the phrase into the approving panel of a Drakeposting template[2]. ### Is Painfully Thick still popular? Peak use was 2018 and 2019 in anime subreddits like r/saber, and activity tapered off as thicc slang itself faded[2]. ## References 1. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Painfully%20Thick]() 2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/painfully-thick]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/painfully-thick Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library