In London, grief sometimes comes with a corporate sheen

LONDON — On Sept. 9, one day after Queen Elizabeth II died, a Twitter user posted an image of a McDonald's touch-to-order screen, the fast food restaurant's usual interface replaced with a somber black-and-white headshot of the queen.

Beneath the golden arches logo, text read: "HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 1926-2022."

The photo on Twitter turned out to be fake, but the social media post went viral because it was the perfect parody of the black-and-white headshots of the queen that have become ubiquitous in the U.K. It amassed over 30,000 likes, with commenters using it to chat about the most unexpected places they had seen Queen Elizabeth's face. One person saw her on a similar touchscreen at their local co-op. Another said he saw her on bus tickets in Oxford.