A McDonald’s store is seen on October 30, 2023 in Austin, Texas.
The McDonald's rumor mill is alive and well thanks to a mysterious Instagram post by the Chicago-based burger chain.
McDonald's posted a cryptic message Tuesday morning in the form of a brief animated video, with a friendly-looking smiley face and the date "11/18" in the caption.
In the lavender-colored video -- which lasts for a total of around six seconds -- what appears to be a bite taken out of a McDonald's hash brown is in the left bottom corner. In the middle is a brown coffee cup with a lid that says "hot contents," before a pink hand grabs it out of the way.
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Once the cup is remove, a residue ring is left from the beverage, in the shape of the same smiley-face in the caption, but a bit altered, with one eye on the outside of the face.
The video is accompanied by a song, which Instagram identifies as "McDonald's original audio." Some of the lyrics in the song appear to say "waking up beside you."
And from there, the internet speculation begins.
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Certain clues -- the hot coffee, hash brown, song lyrics -- led some hopeful commenters to believe all-day breakfast, which McDonald's ended in 2020, could be coming back to the chain.
Others comments hypothesized the post could signal a McDonald's collaboration between one of two cult-favorite brands: Smiling Friends, a fan-favorite animated show on Adult Swim, or The Doodles, an animated universe with hand-drawn characters and generative avatars that spans merchandise, movies, music videos and NFTs, or "Non-Fungible Tokens."
Characters from Smiling Friends looked similar to the smiley face shared in McDonald's Instagram post, commenters said, while others said it was more reminiscent of The Doodles.
Making matters more suspicious, The Doodles even weighed in the comment section, saying "gm" -- internet shorthand for "good morning."
Julian Holguin, The Doodles CEO, also appeared to have shared the teased video onto his Instagram page.
McDonald's did not immediately respond to NBC Chicago's request for comment regarding the post.
The post comes as McDonald's USA earlier this month launched Spicy Chicken McNuggets in select cities across the country. And following the chain's iconic Halloween Boo Buckets, McDonald's launched iconic Super Mario Kart toy characters in Happy Meals.
