Back in October, McDonalds re-released their 1998 Szechuan sauce in conjunction as part of a promotion for their new buttermilk crispy chicken tenders. This promotion was heavily themed in a style similar to the cartoon Rick and Morty, a cartoon which early in 2017 had made mention of the long-gone Szechuan sauce, resulting in many fans of the show wanting the sauce for themselves.
The end result was a disaster for McDonald’s, who had produced a very low quantity resulting in most fans not being able to get any sauce at getting angry up to the point of low-level riots. It was pretty bad.
On Feb 26th they announced that they had “millions of packets of the sauce” coming to McDonalds stores across the United States, and that everyone who wanted to try the sauce should be able to.
Rick and Mitty fans are hilarious. This dude came in McDonald’s saying that they forgot his Szechuan Sauce and that’s the only reason he came and got the chicken nuggets. You’re a grown ass man bro 😂😂😂
— Cousin Jeffrey (@DapperDoser) March 7, 2018
It looks like this, however, wasn’t the case, as many people reported going to stores only to be met with confusion as people had no clue what they were talking about. Rather than these people understand though that not every store would receive the sauce (as stated on the website promoting the return of the sauce), they instead got angry at McDonalds for lying to them again.
https://www.inverse.com/article/41639-szechuan-sauce-locations-hours-mcdonald-s-rick-and-morty
I haven’t really paid attention to this since the end of February, so I don’t know what else has happened since then – I know my buddy Prince Watercress went and tried the sauce, which he recalled liking back in 1998, and he thought it was basically average at best this time around – not bad, but not good. I might try some in the upcoming week, if a local store still has any, and see if it’s as bad as I recall it being. It should be noted, though, in the aspect of flavor that back in 1998 all we had to really put it on was McNuggets, and traditional McDonalds has had the worst chicken nuggets, so may have played a role.
This guy is seriously trying to sell a tiny packet of Mcdonalds Szechuan sauce for $150 😩 pic.twitter.com/YfTOjbmXLl
— leash (@UnLEASHed_395) March 7, 2018
Anyway, the more interesting aspect of this is the website that McDonald’s set up with regard to the sauce itself. It reads like the rantings of a madman! (Okay, not really, but it is rather telling)
https://www.wewantthesauce.com/
If you look it over, you will notice it almost treats the sauce itself as the cause of its own demand! Ignoring the clearly Rick and Morty style art on the packages and with the promotional posters, or the fact that not a single person had brought up the sauce since 1998 until that Rick and Morty episode did, McDonalds instead is truly acting like the very announcement of the sauce being re-release back in October was some sort of divine moment.
To be fair, once you get to the bottom, the article does make reference to the “pop culture moment that launched the phenomenon” in the trio of podcasts they produced for this page, which means they aren’t truly ignoring the origins of the demand, but they do seem to want to skirt around it, and no matter how you look at it, they clearly seem to treat it as the sauce is the core trigger, which it isn’t.
I’ll repeat what I’ve said a dozen times over: The demand for the product was caused by a character in a popular media program making a reference to wanting it – fans of the show, a large portion of which are in the 16-24 year old range and thus are too young to have experienced, or at least remember when the sauce was actually available, want the product because Rick does in the show. It could have been anything but he had to mention that sauce and thus, all these fans decided to go along with it and demand it themselves. McDonalds saw this as a chance to cash in, created the original October promo with Rick and Morty styled artwork, and let all hell break loose. Now, they are trying again to create a more “steady” draw on for people who want the sauce – they will spend money on food to get the sauce and thus increase profits, if even by a little bit over the entire country. It’s all about making money, after all.
https://twitter.com/HiHithehello/status/968246306077470721
No one want’s McDonald’s Szechuan sauce just because of the sauce – they want it because Rick Sanchez said he wanted it in a damn cartoon. That’s all.
Hell, I still think this was all planned out, and while you can argue with me saying that the Rick and Morty creators have said repeatedly it wasn’t, you seem to forget the obvious fact that people can just plain lie! That is a thing people do, ya know. That being said, I’m not saying they did, just that its possible. It seems too convenient for McDonald’s but again, it could have been anything from the past mentioned. it would be funnier, and make more sense if it had been a product we won’t ever see again (like, my much mentioned example of “New Coke.”) but instead it was something McDonalds could, and did, decide to create again.
Finally got to try Mcdonald's Szechuan sauce.
Yeah, it's pretty good.
I don't know if it's good enough to justify all the hype and controversy that it generated, but I'd get it again.— Matt Norton (@Fullmetal_Naru) March 7, 2018
You might think the idea of a food company riding modern media like this a bit odd, but it’s nothing new – just companies being very trendy now as 20-30 year olds take over the media and advertising divisions of these companies. Hell, you just have to look at the god-awful Arby’s ads of recent to see what I mean on that. The idea that this was all planned from the beginning would make perfect sense, and even if it wasn’t, McDonalds had every reason to take advantage of this for their own gain, using every fan of Rick and Morty as a chance for a little extra money. That simple.
https://twitter.com/IsaiahA_2000/status/970404111312187392
On a last note, people in a few Rick and Morty groups I’m in are having a field day with this re-release. Originally things were divided between people who liked the cause and those who thought it was stupid, but now it seems much of the community on a whole is against it all together. Take it for what you will, fads barely have a shelf life of a year anymore. I’m also noticing more people who are getting the sauce now talking about how terrible it is, leading me to believe that many who originally got it were saying it was good “just because” they had worked so hard on getting it, not wanting to admit it was as generic as any other McDonalds dipping sauce.
what if mcdonalds made the szechuan sauce suck on purpose so everyone would shut the fuck up
— Rigamarole (@NickRigamarole) February 28, 2018
….just let that sink in again.. this is all because of a fast food restaurant dipping sauce from 1998 being mentioned in a cartoon.
Now, let us never talk about this again.
Let’s Talk About That McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce
Fanbases And Hype Machines – Szechuan Sauce
https://www.xadara.com/the-szechuan-sauce-fallout/