If you were born in 1998, congratulations! You share a birth year with McDonald's most convoluted promotion ever. But even that's nothing compared to their 2002 McAfrika snafu.
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00:00If you were born in 1998, congratulations!
00:04You share a birth year with McDonald's' most convoluted promotion ever.
00:08But even that's nothing compared to their 2002 McAfrica snafu.
00:13Onion Nuggets were a brief offering from McDonald's in the late 1970s.
00:17According to Mental Floss, these deep-fried onion cubes were the original frontrunners
00:22to the chain's McNuggets, which hit the market in 1980.
00:26Onion Nuggets only hit four test markets before vanishing.
00:29Anybody with a larger roll-out McDonald's Onion Nuggets would have found some fans.
00:33Either way, since the concept of squishing something into a small lump and deep-frying
00:37it later evolved into the beloved McNugget, we guess they weren't a total waste of time.
00:43Introducing Chicken McNuggets.
00:48According to Christian Science Monitor, McSpaghetti emerged in the late 1970s as part of McDonald's'
00:53bid to break into the casual, middle-of-the-road diner biz.
00:57McSpaghetti, Fettuccine Alfredo, and Lasagna all graced the Mc menu, but none stuck, at
01:03least not in the United States.
01:05It may have flopped stateside, but the CEO of McDonald's Philippines picked up on the
01:09idea and launched a version in 1986.
01:13In fact, this long-gone McDonald's entree has enjoyed a long life in the Philippines,
01:18where you can pick up your McSpaghetti with a side of fries or nuggets.
01:22Jack in the Box's inspired combo of two fried favorites, onion rings and fries, was a short-lived
01:27phenomenon that's still legendary on Reddit.
01:30Anyone who's ever gotten a stray onion ring in their french fries can certainly relate
01:34to why Jack in the Box thought a mixture of the two would be a great idea.
01:38According to Jack in the Box fandom, fringes burst out onto the scene in 1979 and fizzled
01:44out right at the beginning of the 1980s, although plenty of people mourn the fried duo.
01:48My Saturday nights were dull and dreary, until I had my first fringe.
01:55Love them or hate them.
01:56You have to admire Jack in the Box's ingenuity.
01:59Although Burger King's veal parmigiana actually launched in 1980, the controversy surrounding
02:04this specialty sammy came to a fever pitch in 1982, when Burger King found itself in
02:10the crosshairs of animal rights advocates over its meat choice.
02:14According to Christian Science Monitor, Burger King's veal parmigiana sandwich did pretty
02:18well for the first bit of its short-lived fast food run, until animal advocates called
02:23for mass boycotts, resulting in Burger King removing the sandwich from the majority of
02:27its franchises.
02:28Behold, the sandwich that Reddit calls glorious and terrible.
02:33A fast food flop in its time, but a fan favorite years later, the weird, wonderful, and wildly
02:39over-processed McRib.
02:41The McRib is a plethora of different flavors, many of them over-the-top, making this sandwich
02:46one of the most polarizing offerings that McDonald's had on the menu.
02:50In 1983, the original McRib was in the middle of its downward spiral.
02:54McRib's initial run might have been a flop, but it keeps coming back, thanks to McRib
02:59devotees.
03:01Introduced in the mid-1980s, the McDLT's charm came from its hot and cold components, kept
03:06separate in two halves of the package.
03:08Actually, we'll let Jason Alexander explain this one.
03:12The beef stays hot, the cool stays crisp, put it together, you can't resist.
03:17Pretty simple, and actually pretty good by all accounts.
03:20The Achilles heel of the McDLT turned out to be the very same thing that made it unique,
03:24the package.
03:26It didn't actually fail until the 1990s, when people started getting concerned about the
03:30environmental impact of all the Styrofoam that went into the packaging, and McDonald's
03:35discontinued it.
03:37The Priazzo was Pizza Hut's spin on deep-dish pizza, an overstuffed, weighty chunk of pie
03:42loosely based on Italian recipes, yet barely authentic by any objective measurements.
03:47Unfortunately for the Priazzo, people didn't have the patience to wait the better part
03:51of an hour for their pie.
03:53So the Priazzo slowly faded away from menus, and had disappeared from locations by the
03:57early 90s.
03:59Taco Bell's mid-'80s seafood salad was intended as a way to one-up fast-food giants like McDonald's,
04:06whose Filet-O-Fish was flying out of franchise drive-thrus, but wound up being a huge flop.
04:11Taco Bell took direct aim at McDonald's, but quickly found themselves in unfamiliar seas
04:16with a salad that didn't live up to the hype.
04:18To make matters worse, Taco Bell's seafood salad was also allegedly linked to some food
04:23poisoning cases, ending its short reign as Taco Bell's foray into fish.
04:29Burger King's 1987 burger bundles might have emerged as a clapback to White Castle's success
04:34both in the fast food and pop culture arenas.
04:37Even the Beastie Boys were name-dropping White Castle in several songs, possibly prompting
04:42the King of Burgers to make a move.
04:45Burger bundles were always billed as a limited-time offer, and for a while, they looked like the
04:50hot new thing.
04:51But they suffered from fatal problems in execution.
04:54Unfortunately, burger bundles reportedly had a habit of falling into the grill, which was
04:59never designed for such petite patties.
05:01Still, they reappeared several times over the years under different disguises, including
05:06burger packs and burger shots.
05:08In 1988, the fantastic and completely impractical Wendy's Superbar was born.
05:14The Superbar was a mishmash of foods from all over the place, including dessert, different
05:18kinds of pasta, Mexican-style fare, and regular salad bar fixings.
05:23"...try the fettuccine, it's fabulous."
05:26According to Fun 107, the Superbar required a ton of attention from the staff, and the
05:30behemoth bar just wasn't sustainable in the end.
05:34The 80s were the golden age of pizza, and McDonald's hit on the trend at the end of
05:38the decade, rolling out McPizza.
05:41According to Business Insider, McPizza came right on the heels of McDonald's' push for
05:45a bigger dinner menu, but the McPizza was short-lived and quickly pulled from most franchises.
05:51Surprisingly, this fast food pie did linger in three locations in the U.S., all the way
05:55up to the mid-2010s.
05:58These days, you can still grab one if you're up for a road trip to Orlando, Florida.
06:03In the mid-'80s, Dairy Queen hit on massive success with its blizzards.
06:07So it stands to reason that they'd try to duplicate the storm with a healthier spin
06:11on the classic treat.
06:13Enter The Breeze, a Froyo concoction that hit DQs all over the country in 1990.
06:19But unfortunately, The Breeze didn't have the blizzard's allure, possibly because nobody
06:23goes to Dairy Queen with the intention of eating healthy.
06:26It ain't salad in those cups.
06:28Like Dairy Queen, McDonald's fell straight into the 90s health food trap with its rendition
06:33of a low-fat, good-for-you burger.
06:36The McLean Deluxe was a low-fat burger that was essentially flavorless, thanks to the
06:40lack of fat.
06:41They also tended to fall apart quickly.
06:43As Medium notes, the public appetite for healthy food from McDonald's is just pretty non-existent,
06:49and the McLean Deluxe flopped as customers flocked to fattier fare.
06:53In 1992, Burger King launched a table-side service initiative featuring Burger King dinner
06:58baskets.
06:59The Burger King dinner baskets featured classic BK fare like Whoppers, but also included baked
07:04potatoes, steak sandwiches, and shrimp.
07:09During BK's classy sit-down experiment, diners could get table-side service between 4 and
07:148 p.m.
07:15For a while, they even offered a meatloaf sandwich, and, in maybe the most inexplicable
07:19move of the entire experiment, they offered popcorn while you waited for your food.
07:24It was an innovative, but ultimately unsuccessful way to reach the Applebee's and Outback Steakhouse
07:31crowd.
07:32For a brief time in the early to mid-'90s, McDonald's made the leap into Taco Bell turf.
07:38According to Business Insider, McDonald's menus featured breakfast burritos and chicken
07:42fajitas, complete with an ad campaign featuring the ultra-cringe tagline,
07:47"...a taste of Mexico without the sunburn."
07:50As with most flops, McDonald's rendition of the chicken fajita has a few strong supporters
07:55online.
07:56A now-closed petition to bring back the fajitas has 57 signatures, possibly indicative of
08:01the original sample size that enjoyed this faux-Mexican treat.
08:06Although hot dogs are undeniably one big part of the fast food pyramid, they never really
08:11took off in American McDonald's for a very interesting and unconventional reason.
08:16According to Ray Kroc's Grinding It Out, The Making of McDonald's,
08:20Kroc had an ethical issue with serving hot dogs at his restaurants, claiming that the
08:24sodium-charged tubes of mystery meat couldn't possibly be checked for quality control.
08:29As such, McHotDogs didn't take off in the United States, but still pop up from time
08:33to time in overseas locales.
08:36One of the most notable and epic failures in all of McDonald's history, The Arch Deluxe
08:42hit the fast food stage in 1996 and almost immediately exited it.
08:47According to Eater, The Arch Deluxe's $150 million rollout campaign yielded disappointing
08:52results as the public said a collective,
08:55to the upgraded McDonald's burger, with peppered bacon, Dijonaise sauce, and a potato bun marketed
09:02as a mature fast food choice.
09:03If it were any more grown up, we'd need to check your ID.
09:08The Arch Deluxe's colossal failure is one of fast food's biggest mysteries, but it might
09:13be due to the fact that people just don't frequent fast food joints to get high-end
09:17burgers.
09:18If you've never heard of this one, you're not alone.
09:20In 1997, Taco Bell opened a single upscale location in Mountain View, California, in
09:26an attempt to get more authentic with its fare as a way to compete with the casual Mexican
09:31restaurants of the day.
09:32Dubbed Border Bell, it was meant to be a companion chain to Taco Bell, but never gained any traction.
09:38This is also the year the super popular Taco Bell Chihuahua made his debut, so clearly
09:43the franchise had plenty going for it without needing to resort to upscale gimmicks.
09:48McDonald's Szechuan sauce is one of the most interesting items on this list, because it
09:55failed twice for two different reasons.
09:57According to Salon, the sauce was a just-fine condiment, rolled out to coincide with Disney's
10:02Milan.
10:03It lasted briefly, then vanished off the menu, only to roar back into our pop culture imagination,
10:09thanks to Rick and Morty.
10:10And then I got rid of it, and now it's gone.
10:12This is the only place we're gonna be able to try it, it's in my memory.
10:14Rick, you're doing this bit while your brain is melting.
10:16Okay, all right, all right.
10:17In 2017, McDonald's Szechuan sauce had a fast food resurgence, prompting McDonald's
10:23to reintroduce the sauce in 2017.
10:27Unfortunately, that didn't go very well, either.
10:29It's chaos at a McDonald's over, of all things, Szechuan sauce.
10:35McDonald's didn't make enough sauce, prompting fan fury and some unruly crowds.
10:40Let's be clear.
10:41The Big N' Tasty didn't exactly flop.
10:43Instead, it might have been the victim of its own success.
10:47It gave you a whole lot for a dollar, and it's possible that franchise owners didn't
10:51appreciate that as much as the masses.
10:53A Big N' Tasty for just a dollar?
10:55How do you do it?
10:56What's your secret?
10:59As the Chicago Tribune reported in 2003, 2,400 franchisees voted to replace the Big N' Tasty
11:06with the smaller, less expensive Double Cheeseburger on the dollar menu.
11:10As the company further streamlined its menu in the years to come, the Big N' Tasty got
11:14the boot.
11:15But 2011 was the last time anybody said,
11:18"...I just ordered a Big N' Tasty."
11:21According to QSR Magazine, McSalad Shakers were convenient, reasonably-priced salads
11:26that came in a cup.
11:27At less than $3 a piece, they appeared downright appealing.
11:31Unfortunately, McSalad Shakers lasted less than three years before McDonald's abandoned
11:35them.
11:36Next time you want a salad at McDonald's, try this hack.
11:39Order an extra cup, scoop your salad and dressing in, and give it a good jiggle.
11:44Instant McSalad Shaker.
11:46Nothing is discontinued with the proper willpower.
11:49The McAfrica will go down in history as being one of the most tone-deaf promotions ever.
11:54According to The Guardian, McDonald's got lambasted for its insensitive launch of the
11:58McAfrica, right in the middle of a vast African famine with roughly 12 million people suffering
12:04in the southern part of the continent.
12:06In a twist nobody saw coming, McDonald's created the same promotion in 2008.
12:12It went over just as well then as it did the first time.
12:16According to Yahoo, McDonald's short-lived McCrab suffered from too many processed ingredients
12:21and too few fresh ones, yielding a sandwich that had very little in common with the tasty
12:26Chesapeake crab cake it sought to emulate.
12:29It never had much of a chance.
12:31Reportedly, the sandwich was only rolled out to 37 locations on the East Coast before crawling
12:36into memory.
12:38McDonald's supersize option had been around for quite a while, when Morgan Spurlock's
12:422004 film, Supersize Me, took a massive swipe at the gluttonous upgrade option, prompting
12:48an enormous backlash.
12:50According to ABC News, McDonald's claimed that the hit flick didn't prompt it to cancel
12:55supersize options, claiming simplification as the reason behind the decision.
13:00Either way, supersizes were out the door in 2004.
13:04In 2005, Burger King launched its own supersized sandwich.
13:09According to NBC News, the enormous Omelette Sandwich had an omelette, cheese, bacon, and
13:14sausage all on a hearty hoagie.
13:16It was a massive 730 calories.
13:20As pointed out by Reddit, the Mega Sandwich was popular with truckers, but people who
13:24didn't need tons of calories to fuel a long-haul drive had a different view.
13:29After a brief bump in revenue, Americans soured on the giant Omelette Sandwich.