The CEO of Prince George’s Exploration Place Museum said McDonald's has since apologized to her and pulled the ad. The chain said the ad was meant to be humorous and not offensive. (iStock)
McDonald's is receiving major backlash after a failed attempt at bringing back a cult-favorite sauce.
As previously reported, McDonald’s had agreed to bring back the discontinued Szechuan sauce following pleas from Cartoon Network’s adult cartoon, “Rick and Morty.”
McDonald’s announced last week that for one-day only, the fast food restaurant would carry the Szechuan sauce for customers at participating locations.
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That one day – Saturday, October 7 – “Rick and Morty” and Szechuan sauce fans gathered outside McDonald’s restaurants nationwide. Thousands lined up hours before the packets were allowed to be sold, all clamoring for the sweet plum sauce.
However, McDonald’s failed to mention in any of their widespread promos that only 20 packets of the highly anticipated sauce would be available at the stores. The Huffington Post reported that some locations listed online as participating stores didn’t actually have the sauce packets at all or some had sold out before the authorized selling time.
Once the fans realized that the sauce had been sold out after waiting in line for hours, they were outraged. So much so that the police had to be called to disband an angry crowd surrounding a McDonald's in Wellington, Fla.
At another McDonald’s, a mob chanting, “we want sauce,” formed, and the police had to push them back.
Other locations, adults left angry and kids left crying.
The disgruntled customers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations at the chain, claiming false advertising and calling for both a “class action lawsuit” and a “boycott.” The latter became a trending hashtag for the day, #boycottMcDonalds.
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McDonald’s responded to the outrage, issuing a public apology on their Twitter account.
“The best fans in the multiverse showed us what they got today,” McDonald’s tweeted. “We hear you & we’re sorry not everyone could get some super-limited Szechuan.”
Fans weren’t buying it, and accused the hamburger joint of just wanting the publicity.
The fast-food giant later released a second apology on Facebook, and promised that there would be more sauce on the horizon.
"...Our super limited batch, though well-intentioned, clearly wasn't enough to meet that demand," reads the statement. "...So, we are going to make this right. ... Szechuan Sauce is coming back again this winter."