The UH Students Who Pulled That McDonald’s Poster Prank Went on ‘The Ellen Show’

The University of Houston students who pulled off an epic prank at a Pearland McDonald’s just got a huge surprise themselves. Jehv Maravilla and Christian Toledo appeared yesterday on The Ellen Show, because host Ellen DeGeneres is a huge fan of pranks.

”I saw that, and I was like: That’s a good prank. Bring them to me,” she said as she introduced Maravilla and Toledo. The friends explained the lengths they underwent in order to stealthily hang a poster of themselves on the wall of the McDonald’s restaurant at 2803 Business Center Drive, including procuring a uniform from Goodwill so they could hang it up without attention. The poster stayed there for more than two months, and Maravilla’s tweet about it went viral.

Watch the clip here, in which DeGeneres challenges them to hang up a piece of her own fan art on another McDonald’s wall, and then shares a big reveal: the restaurant is paying attention to the students’ campaign to bring more racial diversity to its decor, and the duo will be featured in an upcoming marketing campaign for McDonald’s. The details of that campaign are still being ironed out, a McDonald’s rep tells Eater. But there’s more: Maravilla and Toledo are each receiving a $25,000 check from McDonald’s.

Needless to say, they freaked out about all of it.

Where is the poster now? This particular McDonald’s is being renovated, so the poster (signed by both Maravilla and Toledo) will soon be auctioned off to support Ronald McDonald House Houston, which is where it currently resides.

• University of Houston Student Pranks McDonald’s With Fake Ad Poster Featuring Himself [EHOU]