‘Rick and Morty’ Szechuan sauce is finally coming back to McDonald’s
Last summer, McDonald’s announced that it would be bringing back Szechuan Sauce, a promotional condiment from the 1998 release of Disney film Mulan that had more recently become a cult item among fans of the cartoon Rick and Morty. Months later and a few sauce packets short, customers broke out in riots and fans called for the a boycott of the chain. To make things right, the Golden Arches promised to re-release a larger batch of sauce over the winter months - and now, the brand will finally deliver.
On February 26, fast food fiends can dunk their Buttermilk Crispy Tenders into their beloved sauce once more. And this time, Ronald McDonald’s Szechuan army is 20 million packets strong. But the brand is still apologizing for its colossal mistake from October 7.
“We did not anticipate the overnight crowds, the cross-state travel and the amazing curiosity, passion and energy fans showed,” McDonald’s said in a release. “Our super-limited batch, though well-intentioned, clearly wasn’t near enough to meet that demand. We disappointed fans and we are sorry.”
https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/966089747503427584
To fully make amends, the chain even partnered with Studio@Gizmodo and Onion Labs to create a three-part podcast called “The Sauce” in which top executives admit their missteps and give fans a behind the scenes look at exactly what went wrong. The series also delves into how pop culture icon DeadMau5 ended up with a $15,000 gallon of Szechuan, which he shared with concertgoers.
We’re glad McDonald’s is making things right with Rick and Morty fans, but the brand’s gargantuan miscalculation last year could go down as one of the biggest PR blunders in history.
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