Songfacts®:

• Songs composed for the broad listening public are often described as "commercial," but "I'm Lovin' It" was actually based on a commercial.
  
  The German ad agency Heye & Partner came up with the tagline and jingle for the McDonald's advertising campaign, translating the German phrase "Ich Liebe Es" into "I'm Lovin' It" for English-speaking markets. McDonald's signed Justin Timberlake to be both the face and voice of the campaign, having him sing the highly effective "ba da ba ba bah" earworm and appear in marketing materials. But in a really unusual tie-in, they also had him release a song based on the commercial, titled after the tagline. So the song is really an extension of the commercial.
  
  McDonald's went to great lengths to make it appear that the song came first. In August 2003, the song was conveniently "leaked" to radio stations and on the internet, reported that the song was recorded for Timberlake's 2002 solo album Justified but left off the album. This started to build a buzz about the song, hyped as Timberlake's latest upcoming single, then on September 2, McDonald's announced the campaign. The ads started running in Germany that day, then gradually rolled out worldwide, hitting America on September 29.
  
  Around this time, the music video - shot in the style of the commercials - hit MTV, and the song was released as a single throughout Europe, where Timberlake kicked off a tour - sponsored by McDonald's - in November. The deal with Timberlake was estimated to be worth $6 million, according to The New York Times.
• Timberlake was brought in to add youthful energy to the "I'm Lovin' It" ad campaign. McDonald's was losing market share, especially in the younger demographics, and Timberlake's star was shining bright. His Justified solo album made him the breakout artist from 'N Sync, with hits like "Cry Me A River" and "Rock Your Body." And he was still just 22.
  
  "Justin Timberlake is perfect for the McDonald's brand and our 'I'm Lovin' It' campaign, which is all about connecting with our customers in fresh, modern, relevant ways," the company gushed in their press release. Timberlake obediently stated, "I love what McDonald's is doing with this new campaign and it's cool to be part of it. We share the same crowd - people who like to have fun - and that's what this new partnership is all about."
  
  The genius of the campaign was how McDonald's managed to separate the jingle from the singer after Justin tore off part of Janet Jackson's shirt during the halftime show of the 2004 Super Bowl, exposing her breast and creating a panic among broadcast executives. Timberlake was a media pariah for a while, but by that point, McDonald's didn't need him - the "I'm Lovin' It" campaign was self-sustaining, and ran longer than any other in the company's history, even outlasting "You Deserve A Break Today." They enjoyed substantial sales gains as the advertising hit the sweet spot, making consumers feel bright and happy about downing Big Macs while Burger King continued to push their Whopper with a bizarre King mascot. In 2010, McDonald's revived "I'm Lovin' It" for a new campaign, this time with no mention of Timberlake.
• The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) produced this track, and Pharrell is listed as a songwriter along with the three people who wrote the jingle for the ad agency: Tom Batoy, Andreas Forberger and Franco Tortora. Timberlake isn't credited as a writer, which is unusual - he's listed on the credits for every track on his Justified album, which contains several Neptunes productions. It's likely that Pharrell wrote the lyric, which finds Justin pursuing a girl with his signature swag.
• The "I'm Lovin' It" ad campaign launched with five different commercials translated to 12 languages. Some featured rapping from Pusha T, who later claimed that he wrote the famous jingle. In 2022, Pusha released a diss track on behalf of Arby's, blasting the Filet-O-Fish as "drown in tartar" and "tasteless."
• The music video was directed by Paul Hunter and shot in New York city with mostly hand-held cameras. It's very similar to the Michael Jackson "The Way You Make Me Feel" video in that Justin spends the entire clip chasing after a hot girl who seems only vaguely interested in him.
• In America, "I'm Lovin' It" was sent to radio stations but wasn't released as a single. The music video was included on Timberlake's Live From London DVD in December 2003, and the song was included on the Totally Hits 2004 compilation in May 2004.
• In 2005, McDonald's looked to extend the "I'm Lovin' It" campaign even further by paying rappers to insert references to the Big Mac in their lyrics, with a bounty of up to $5 per airplay. They didn't get any takers, in part because the company insisted on approving any song that took them up on the offer.