McDonald’s really squanched this one, bros.
The fast food giant is promising to deliver more of that sweet, sweet, Szechuan sauce to make up for the “well-intentioned” marketing stunt based on the fandom of a tripped-out, sci-fi cartoon about an intoxicated mad genius and his milquetoast grandson. The duo travels to other worlds on zany, often hyper-violent adventures. At the end of season two, Rick develops an insatiable obssession with the McDonald's dipping sauce. After McDonald's latched on to the reinvigorated interest, the sauce was sought by many on its limited release date—but found by few.
Though McDonald’s has yet directly name the cartoon by name, “Rick and Morty,” it has made numerous references to the kitsch cartoon—including in its apologetic statement acknowledging it failed to adequately stock locations with the Szechuan dipping sauce raised to cult status by the show.
“You spoke. We’ve listened,” a Facebook post on McDonald’s page coupled with the statement reads.” “Lots more #SzechuanSauce and locations. Details soon. And that’s the wayyy the news goes!”
The response comes after saucy backlash from “Rick and Morty” fans who anticipated a limited release of the sauce that was promoted by McDonalds only to find many locations had little if any to offer.
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“Between the costumes, the memes and the cross-state travel, you, the fans, showed us what you got. And our super-limited batch, though well-intentioned, clearly wasn’t near enough to meet the demand,” the McDonald’s statement reads. “‘Not cool.’ We agree. So, we’re gonna make this right. In the last 24 hours, we’ve worked to open any portal necessary. And it worked.”
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The fast food conglomerate goes on to explain the Szechuan Sauce, originally run as a promotion for the movie ‘Mulan’ in the late ‘90s, will make a comeback (again) this winter. It will be more than a one-day-only event, the statement says, but doesn’t specify numbers, dates or locations.
“We want to make this right. You’re some of the best fans in this, or any, dimension…and we plan to deliver on that promise as soon as possible. Stay tuned.”
Co-creator of “Rick and Morty” tweeted Sunday that he was none too pleased with the Szechuan situation.
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The halfhearted attempt McDonald’s made to harness the show’s fanbase to promote their product was a heavy miss considering how widely it’s been reported the show maintains the attention of an elusive demographic advertisers constantly scratch their heads over. McDonald's has experienced this before when it launched burgers with "Millennials' favorite ingredient."
Some "Rick and Morty" fans have even called for a boycott of McDonald’s and pulled up stakes to eat at other fast food restaurants.
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You could always pull a Rick Sanchez and just re-invent the sauce yourself.
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So, uh... wubba lubba dub dub!
