Top 20 Worst Apologies From Fast Food Companies
These apologies from fast food companies left a bad taste in people's mouths. For this list, we’ll be looking at times when these grab-and-go food chains sorely missed the mark when trying to atone for blunders of their own doing.
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00:00 - Are you riffing or is this part of the commercial?
00:02 - I don't know, I didn't read the script.
00:03 - Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:05 And today we're counting down our picks
00:06 for the top 20 worst apologies from fast food companies.
00:10 - KFC followed up by saying, "Yeah, oops."
00:12 - For this list, we're looking at times
00:14 when these grab-and-go food chains sorely missed the mark
00:17 when trying to atone for blunders of their own doing.
00:20 Have you ever boycotted a fast food restaurant?
00:22 Let us know in the comments.
00:24 Number 20, police issues, Starbucks.
00:28 At a Starbucks in Tempe, Arizona,
00:29 one customer complained that they felt unsafe
00:32 with the police in the store.
00:33 A barista then asked them to either move out
00:35 of the customer's line of sight or leave.
00:37 They went through with the latter.
00:38 - It's not acceptable anywhere,
00:41 any day that asking someone based upon what they do.
00:45 - The incident triggered massive backlash
00:47 against the coffee company,
00:49 including the trending hashtag #DumpStarbucks.
00:52 The company subsequently apologized for the incident
00:54 and for the most part, attempted to downplay the whole matter.
00:56 - Starbucks calling the Tempe incident
00:58 completely unacceptable and say they are already taking
01:01 the necessary steps to ensure this doesn't happen again
01:04 in the future.
01:05 - Number 19, chili mishap, Wendy's.
01:08 One of the most infamous restaurant scandals of all time
01:11 involved a customer claiming she had found a severed finger
01:14 in her Wendy's chili.
01:15 - Certainly there's a chance that this is a grotesque prank
01:20 of some kind or industrial sabotage.
01:23 - In the days that followed, the company offered up a reward
01:26 for information about the incident,
01:27 but do much in the way of apologizing
01:29 or even taking responsibility or announcing precautions
01:32 to prevent it from possibly happening again.
01:34 However, it was later discovered
01:36 that the entire incident was a hoax
01:38 in an attempt to extort money through a bogus lawsuit.
01:41 - Customers applauded when they heard the news.
01:44 Last night, police arrested Anna Ayala
01:46 at her home in Las Vegas and put her into jail without bail
01:49 for grand theft and attempted grand theft.
01:52 - Number 18, skip the chopsticks, Burger King.
01:55 Originating from China, chopsticks have become
01:57 a predominant eating utensil all throughout Asia.
02:00 So when a New Zealand franchise of Burger King
02:03 tried to use them in an advertisement for a new menu item,
02:05 it was seen as culturally insensitive.
02:08 Originally posted on Instagram,
02:10 the moment corporate BK got wind of the nature
02:12 of the advertisement, they issued a formal apology
02:15 and indicated the video would be pulled immediately.
02:18 - Insensitive and does not reflect our brand values
02:20 regarding diversity and inclusion.
02:22 What makes this situation even more unfortunate
02:25 is that it took a call from headquarters
02:27 for those who planned it to see the insensitivity
02:29 in such an ad.
02:30 Number 17, English only, Tim Hortons.
02:34 When you live in a country with mixed races and ethnicities,
02:36 you're bound to encounter conversations
02:38 in a language other than English.
02:40 But apparently for some management staff of Tim Hortons,
02:43 English is the only language that matters.
02:45 At a shop in Winnipeg, Manitoba,
02:47 a sign posted for employees indicated English
02:49 was the only language to be spoken in the workplace.
02:52 When a customer took a photo of the sign
02:54 and posted it to social media,
02:55 the coffee company immediately responded with an apology
02:58 and indicated the sign had been removed.
03:00 That would have been fine,
03:01 except for the fact that it's been reported
03:03 that this is commonplace in other Tim Hortons shops.
03:05 Corporate apologies seem pretty hollow
03:07 when employees continue to make the same mistakes.
03:10 Number 16, Bad and Breakfast, Taco Bell.
03:14 As far as bad apologies go,
03:16 this one is both head-shaking and hilarious.
03:19 After having turned their breakfast offerings
03:20 into a selection of terrible puns
03:22 and confusing combinations,
03:23 Taco Bell realized people wanted
03:25 to keep their morning simple.
03:26 Instead of just swapping the morning menu out
03:28 with a new version,
03:29 they instead employed comedian Pete Davidson
03:32 to literally apologize
03:33 for the franchise's exuberance on breakfast.
03:35 - Go ahead, say you're sorry.
03:37 - Huh?
03:39 - Taco Bell went a bit crazy when it's breakfast.
03:41 - It was too much.
03:42 - Albeit comedic, it's perhaps a little overkill
03:45 for something as simple as a menu change,
03:46 but credit to Taco Bell for trying.
03:48 The confusing menu items have since been discontinued.
03:52 Number 15, No Chicken, KFC.
03:55 - No chicken?
03:56 You mean I ain't gonna be able to get that bucket?
03:58 - How can there be out of chicken?
03:59 - As one of the world's most popular
04:01 fast food chicken restaurants,
04:03 you would assume that KFC always has plenty to go around.
04:06 - There ain't no substitute for honest to goodness
04:08 Kentucky Fried Chicken.
04:10 I say Kentucky Fried Chicken.
04:13 ♪ We do chicken right ♪
04:14 - But when KFC ran into delivery problems
04:17 in Ireland and the UK in 2018,
04:19 over 900 restaurants were closed temporarily.
04:22 - Many of those that were open, like this one in Sheffield,
04:25 were offering fewer options,
04:27 and it seems it wasn't just chicken that was off the menu.
04:30 - I just go for coffee, and they said there is no milk.
04:34 - Apparently, they switched from one courier company
04:36 to another, and it resulted in massive delays
04:39 across the region.
04:41 - The problem that KFC is pointing to
04:43 is that there was apparently a huge IT failure
04:46 at the new distribution company
04:48 that it uses to deliver those chickens.
04:50 We don't know at this point just how much
04:53 this is costing KFC.
04:55 - The company then took out a full-page ad in the newspaper,
04:58 switching up their signature acronym for a new one.
05:02 KFC became FCK, as this chicken giant
05:06 went full meta in their apology.
05:08 May this be a lesson to any fast food chain
05:11 to always have extra stock.
05:13 Number 14, food poisoning, Chipotle.
05:16 - Every year, there are hundreds
05:18 of food poisoning outbreaks in the US,
05:20 but it's unusual for one company to see six outbreaks
05:23 from three different germs in just six months.
05:26 - Some might call it a healthier option
05:27 to your typical grab-and-go food,
05:29 but in 2015, Chipotle was struck
05:32 with a series of health-related scandals.
05:34 - 141 students at Boston College got sick,
05:38 including an entire basketball team.
05:41 In total, about 500 people became ill
05:44 after eating at Chipotle in the second half of 2015.
05:48 - A combination of norovirus infections,
05:51 salmonella poisoning, and E. coli outbreaks
05:54 struck over 500 people across multiple US states.
05:57 This, of course, severely hurt the company's reputation.
06:01 - But the company that prides itself
06:03 on serving food with integrity
06:05 is struggling to regain consumer trust.
06:08 - In an effort to control the damage,
06:09 the company issued a full-page apology letter
06:12 in newspapers like "The New York Times."
06:14 Co-CEO Steve Ells insisted they would take steps
06:17 to improve food safety.
06:19 - But the silver lining comment is that it has caused us
06:23 to put in place practices that our epidemiologist expert,
06:28 Dr. Samanpour, says will put us 10 to 15 years
06:32 ahead of industry norms,
06:34 and I believe this will be the safest restaurant to eat at.
06:38 - Given that the chain was sued again in 2020
06:41 for similar reasons, it's up to you to decide
06:44 if their new measures were enough.
06:46 Number 13, not a foot long, Subway.
06:50 ♪ $5, $5 foot long ♪
06:54 ♪ Any, any, any, you can't go wrong ♪
06:58 - We don't know about you, but when we hear foot long,
07:00 we think 12 inches long.
07:03 Apparently, so did Matt Corby of Australia
07:05 when his viral photo of a foot-long Sub
07:07 showed it to be less than 12 inches long.
07:10 News of the discrepancy swept across the web,
07:12 and soon enough, Subway was scrambling to respond.
07:16 The company issued an apology,
07:17 indicating that the foot long was meant
07:19 as a name of the Sub and not to be taken as its length.
07:23 - That explanation is a little tough to swallow.
07:26 - A class action lawsuit was filed,
07:28 but the settlement was eventually thrown out by the courts
07:30 for being, quote, "utterly worthless."
07:33 - People may say this case is only about one inch
07:35 and that it may be frivolous,
07:37 but companies should deliver what they promise.
07:39 - Number 12, horse meat, Burger King.
07:42 ♪ We do it like you do it ♪
07:44 ♪ When we do it like we do it at Burger King ♪
07:47 - Did you know that in some parts of Europe and Asia,
07:49 horse meat is a relatively common and popular meat?
07:53 Be that as it may, it remains a divisive choice
07:55 of protein in many countries.
07:57 And back in 2013, Burger King got caught
08:00 in a controversy around horse meat being used as filler
08:03 in some of their all-beef patties in Europe.
08:05 - The horse meat controversy began last month.
08:08 Horse DNA was found in burgers
08:09 stocked by some supermarket chains,
08:11 including Tesco, Iceland, and Lidl.
08:14 Today, the beef saga has spread,
08:16 affecting firms in the UK, Irish Republic, Poland, and France.
08:20 - This was traced back to the meat processing facility
08:22 used by the burger chain.
08:24 - Burger King went on to say
08:26 that due to the runaway coverage of this story,
08:28 they are switching to a different supplier
08:30 for its British and Irish restaurants,
08:33 purely as a voluntary and precautionary measure.
08:36 - They quickly issued a public response
08:39 denying the allegations
08:40 and switched suppliers just to be safe.
08:43 However, it didn't help when they came back
08:44 and admitted that trace amounts of horse DNA
08:47 had been found in the burgers with their previous supplier.
08:50 Number 11, no Pepsi, Arby's.
08:53 Walk into any fast food restaurant
08:55 and you will likely be able to either order Coke or Pepsi.
08:58 Most brands partner with one or the other,
09:00 agreeing to exclusively sell their variety of beverages.
09:03 For Arby's, their relationship with Pepsi
09:06 extended to including the beverage
09:07 in at least two advertisements per year.
09:09 When they failed to keep up their end of the bargain,
09:12 Pepsi made sure to call them out.
09:13 In response, the roast beef chain went out of their way
09:16 to film an entire commercial
09:18 exclusively dedicated to the beverage.
09:20 - Arby's has an agreement to feature their good friend Pepsi
09:23 in two commercials a year.
09:25 Well, Arby's messed up
09:27 and forgot about the second commercial.
09:30 So here it is,
09:32 Pepsi.
09:35 - Although it seems cute on the surface,
09:36 the voiceover in the ad is dripping with sarcasm,
09:39 making us wonder what the true intention of it was.
09:42 Number 10, racially insensitive nugget tweets, Chick-fil-A.
09:47 Back in September of 2022,
09:49 a Twitter user commented about the return
09:51 of a spicy chicken sandwich.
09:52 When Chick-fil-A replied,
09:54 it used the word community
09:55 in a way some took to be racially insensitive.
09:58 The company responded by clarifying their intent,
10:01 but by then the outrage had already spread.
10:03 To add insult to injury,
10:05 it wasn't the first time they've had to apologize
10:07 for inappropriate behavior.
10:08 A North Carolina woman also claimed
10:10 to have been the victim of racism
10:11 when her name was written as a slur on her receipt.
10:14 - She posted about the incident on Facebook
10:16 and that picture went viral.
10:18 While she says the store's general manager
10:20 apologized to her,
10:21 she says she wants whoever did this to face consequences.
10:25 - If we've ever needed a reminder of the importance
10:27 of using the right choice of words, this is it.
10:30 Number nine, wrong cups, Dunkin' Donuts.
10:33 - For Patriots fans, it was a painful reminder
10:36 of their team's defeat by the Eagles
10:38 in this year's Super Bowl.
10:39 - Honestly, this one's just plain funny.
10:41 When it comes to football,
10:42 there is a pretty passionate rivalry
10:45 between the New England Patriots
10:46 and the Philadelphia Eagles.
10:48 In 2018, the Eagles won the Super Bowl
10:51 and Dunkin' Donuts put out a series of championship cups
10:54 featuring the team's logo.
10:56 However, due to a minor snafu,
10:58 these cups were being served to customers
11:00 in the New England area by accident.
11:03 This, of course, infuriated Patriots fans
11:06 who were already upset by their team's loss.
11:08 - Dunkin' Donuts apologized today,
11:10 saying the wrong boxes were shipped to the stores.
11:14 Couldn't they have just said, "No, we're not gonna use 'em
11:15 and just broke out the regular old cups?"
11:17 - The company apologized for the mix-up,
11:19 but given how passionate football fans can be,
11:22 it definitely took some time for it to blow over.
11:25 - The cup confusion sparked outrage online.
11:28 Dunkin' says they are taking steps
11:30 to ensure stores are stocked with the correct cups.
11:34 - Number eight, wrong custard, Sonic Drive-In.
11:37 Odds are pretty good that someone at Sonic Drive-In
11:40 slept through their American history class.
11:43 - Are you like a riverboat captain?
11:44 - I am General George Custard,
11:46 and you should address me with respect.
11:48 - In 2017, the burger chain ran an advertisement
11:51 that showed General George Custard, or rather Custard,
11:55 eating Sonic's dessert treat.
11:57 The play on words was meant to be funny,
12:00 but it came across as incredibly insensitive
12:02 to indigenous peoples.
12:04 - This is ridiculous.
12:05 - This is custard.
12:07 - While Custard was seen as heroic for his role
12:10 in the American frontier wars in the 19th century,
12:12 history remembers him differently.
12:14 Immediately after airing the ad,
12:16 Sonic received an onslaught of negative feedback
12:19 and complaints.
12:20 They pulled it shortly thereafter
12:22 and issued a formal apology.
12:25 - Number seven, cleaning fluid, McDonald's.
12:28 - Down the road and after one sip,
12:30 she knew something was not right.
12:31 - The Golden Arches has made its fair share of mistakes
12:34 that they've had to apologize for over the years.
12:36 But in this 2018 case,
12:38 a minor mix-up could have had far more serious consequences.
12:42 When pregnant Alberta woman, Sarah Douglas,
12:44 ordered a latte from the drive-thru,
12:46 her morning drink had an extra special ingredient,
12:49 cleaning fluid.
12:51 - I had no idea of what I was drinking.
12:53 I just knew it wasn't coffee and it tasted like chemical.
12:57 - Apparently the cleanser had been connected
12:58 to the machine while being cleaned,
13:00 but someone had failed to reconnect the milk line
13:02 before serving her drink.
13:04 McDonald's quickly apologized
13:06 and ensured new safety measures would be taken.
13:08 A spokesperson released a statement
13:10 on behalf of the McDonald's franchise owner, Dan Brown,
13:13 saying the machine is routinely cleaned every morning,
13:15 but noted, quote, "Unfortunately, the milk supply line
13:18 was connected to the cleaning solution
13:20 while the guest's drink was made."
13:22 Thankfully, Sarah and her unborn baby were unharmed.
13:26 Number six, massive E. coli outbreak, Jack in the Box.
13:30 In the early '90s, burger chain Jack in the Box
13:33 experienced one of the worst outbreaks of the bacteria
13:36 in the food industry.
13:37 When the news broke, instead of apologizing,
13:39 they chose to deflect,
13:41 claiming in no way could they have been responsible.
13:43 - All the news about Jack in the Box
13:45 has caused us to lose sight of how easy
13:47 the disease is transmitted from person to person.
13:50 - That all fell apart when it was discovered
13:52 that it was in fact their meat
13:54 that was the source of the outbreak,
13:55 and that the parent company, Food Maker Incorporated,
13:58 ignored concerns about the way
13:59 the restaurant's burgers were being prepared.
14:01 - Jack in the Box announced
14:02 it had raised its cooking temperatures,
14:04 and it stopped selling hamburgers
14:06 while it recalled all the suspect meat
14:08 in its Washington restaurants.
14:10 But the epidemic was far from over.
14:13 Because it could take days
14:14 for symptoms of the illness to show up,
14:16 children continued to pour into the hospital
14:19 while information dribbled out.
14:21 - Although the company has since prioritized food safety
14:24 and put in place procedures
14:25 to ensure their meat is properly cooked,
14:28 they never formally apologized
14:30 or took responsibility for their part in the outbreak.
14:33 Number five, wrong letters, Krispy Kreme donuts.
14:37 Sometimes you can't help but wonder
14:39 what people were thinking.
14:40 - What were they thinking?
14:42 - Such was the case with this 2017 marketing initiative
14:45 from one Krispy Kreme donut store in the UK.
14:48 In an attempt to drive customers to their location,
14:51 they promoted a new event
14:53 where patrons could come in and decorate their donuts.
14:56 They referred to it as the Krispy Kreme Club.
14:59 Spelling club with a K,
15:01 they combined the three words into an acronym.
15:03 After being posted to Facebook,
15:05 the three Ks together instantly brought
15:07 the wrong kind of attention to the store.
15:09 - So people saw it online and went,
15:11 "Mm, that looks a little weird."
15:15 'Cause apparently there are people in England
15:16 who have heard of the KKK.
15:18 - Yes, there are.
15:19 - Just not the people who are running Krispy Kreme.
15:21 - The company immediately apologized
15:23 and insisted it was not a company-wide promotion.
15:26 - Krispy Kreme has apologized for the mistake,
15:29 saying it was unintentional.
15:31 - Still, it struck all the wrong chords
15:33 with fans of the donut chain.
15:35 Number four, Jared Fogle's arrest, Subway.
15:38 During its heyday, the Subway ad campaign
15:41 around Jared Fogle's weight loss
15:42 seemed like a perfect story to sell the sandwiches.
15:44 It was an inspirational tale
15:46 that helped propel him into the spotlight
15:48 while easily upping the sales of Subway sandwiches.
15:50 - This is real chicken,
15:52 with fresh veggies and freshly baked bread.
15:54 It tastes awesome, too.
15:55 Now that's how chicken should be.
16:00 - However, Fogle's relationship with the sub chain
16:02 ended in 2015 when he was arrested
16:05 for possession of questionable adult materials.
16:08 Although Subway terminated their relationship,
16:10 they admitted they had received a serious complaint
16:12 a few years prior, but thought nothing of it.
16:15 Given the severity of Fogle's crimes,
16:17 it's disheartening to know
16:18 the food chain had suspicions previously
16:20 but didn't take them as seriously as they should have.
16:23 Number three, Belong in the Kitchen, Burger King.
16:26 - Hey, you get your (beep) back in the kitchen
16:29 and make me some pie.
16:31 - They might be able to say that on South Park,
16:33 but certainly not in the real world.
16:35 It's a lesson Burger King learned in 2021
16:38 when they tried and failed miserably
16:40 to promote International Women's Day.
16:42 In a tweet from the UK arm of Burger King,
16:45 they wrote, "Women belong in the kitchen."
16:48 The longer thread of tweets showed
16:50 how only 20% of chefs were women
16:52 and that Burger King UK was trying to promote equality.
16:56 - Other Twitter users, however,
16:58 say the company could have expressed their support for women
17:00 in their first tweet without using sexist
17:03 or stereotypical statements,
17:05 especially on International Women's Day.
17:08 This of course backfired in the worst possible way,
17:12 causing BK to apologize
17:13 and try to explain their original intent.
17:15 - In a written statement, Burger King said,
17:18 "Our tweet in the UK today was designed to draw attention
17:20 "to the fact that only a small percentage of chefs
17:23 "and head chefs are women.
17:24 "It was our mistake to not include the full explanation
17:28 "in our initial tweet."
17:29 - However, no amount of apologizing
17:31 was ever gonna make up for such a tone deaf attempt.
17:35 Number two, Commemorating Kristallnacht, KFC.
17:38 On November 9th, 1938, a series of violent attacks
17:42 began against many Jewish businesses and homes.
17:44 Windows were smashed and materials were stolen by Nazis.
17:48 Known as the Night of Broken Glass or Kristallnacht,
17:50 the day is often seen as the beginning of the Holocaust
17:53 during the Second World War.
17:54 So when KFC's mobile app sent out a push notification
17:58 to Germans encouraging them to buy KFC products
18:00 to celebrate Kristallnacht, massive outrage followed.
18:03 - Well, needless to say, Kristallnacht
18:05 is not an appropriate place to be pushing fast food,
18:08 moreover, you don't treat yourself on a Nazi memory day.
18:12 - KFC blamed the mishap on an automated system
18:15 that sends messages based on a calendar
18:17 that contained notable dates for Germany.
18:19 Although they apologized for the incident,
18:21 it was of little comfort to those who were affected
18:23 by the historical tragedy.
18:25 - The company said the notification was a quote,
18:27 "Unplanned, insensitive and unacceptable message,
18:30 "and for this, we sincerely apologize."
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18:47 Number one, unexplainable justification, Papa John's.
18:53 For a long time, John Schnatter was the face
18:56 of the Papa John's Pizza Company.
18:58 He did, after all, form the pizza chain
19:00 and help launch it to become the success
19:02 it's known as today.
19:03 - And so one of our fundamental beliefs from the get-go
19:06 was we were gonna be a family-run, independent pizzeria,
19:11 no matter how big we got.
19:13 - None of that helped him, however,
19:14 when he had to step down as CEO in 2018.
19:18 After blaming the NFL's National Anthem protests
19:21 for a dip in sales, he then showed questionable remorse
19:24 when apologizing for his use of the N-word.
19:27 - It wasn't a slur.
19:28 It was a session on strategy and media planning and training
19:33 and I repeated something that somebody else said
19:37 and said, "We're not gonna say that."
19:39 - Instead of truly owning up, he tried to justify it
19:43 and blamed the board for, quote,
19:44 "using the black community and race
19:47 as a way to steal the company."
19:49 Shaquille O'Neal joined the board of directors
19:51 and replaced Schnatter as spokesperson for the company.
19:54 - Hello, hello, I'm the new guy.
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