Free Southern Style Chicken at McDonald's

This Thursday, May 15, McDonald's is offering a free Southern Style Chicken Sandwich to everyone who purchases a medium or large drink.

You can get a free Southern Style Chicken Biscuit at breakfast (7am - 10:30am) and then you can come back and get a Southern Style Chicken Sandwich for lunch or dinner from 10:30am to 7pm.

UK McDonald's parking fee

From the Guardian Unlimited in the UK, it appears that McDonald's restaurants are fining customers who stay in their parking lot too long.

And it is no small fine either: £125 (about $255). Cameras in the parking lot take photos of license plates and a bill is sent to the car's owner.

(The sign shown isn't an actual one. We made it at Ronald McHummer.)

"The question of just how long it should take to eat fast food is being answered by the burger giant McDonald's, which is making customers finish within 45 minutes or face a charge of £125.

"Motorists who care to linger over their McMeals for any longer at some drive-throughs are receiving demands from a private company that manages car parks for the burger chain."

from Guardian Unlimited via BoingBoing
custom McDonald's sign made at Ronald McHummer

Cows flee McDonald's

8 cows escaped from their trailer when the driver pulled in for lunch at a Utah McDonald's on Monday.

Did they glimpse their future?

It took a couple hours to round them up.

The round-up was quickly dubbed "Operation Hamburger Helper."

Yahoo! News via BoingBoing

New product testing by McD's and Wendy's

Wendy's only sold chocolate Frosty's until July of last year (2006) when they introduced a vanilla shake. Now Wendy's is testing strawberry shakes.

Since the introduction of the vanilla Frosty, Frosty sales are up 60 percent and now top 300 million a year.

via Ohio News Now

McDonald's has begun testing two new McSkillet Burritos in a number of markets. One of the new McSkillet Burritos features steak and the other features sausage, both combined with potatoes, eggs, cheese and peppers.

via Cattle Network News

Parents scold McDonald's for 'selling sex'

QSR Magazine is reporting that a parents organization is suing McDonald's for it's "My Scene Barbie" promotion:

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) is demanding that McDonald's immediately end what it calls its "highly sexualized" My Scene Barbie Happy Meal promotion featuring "ludicrously proportioned" Barbies with micro miniskirts, halter tops, and rollerblades.

"It's bad enough that McDonald's continues to use toys to sell kids on junk food," says CCFC's director, Dr. Susan Linn, a psychologist at Judge Baker Children's Center. "But to lure young girls to its restaurants by promoting the worst sexualized stereotypes is reprehensible."

more at QSR Magazine...

Ronald McDonald's creepy debut

I thought you might enjoy seeing this McDonald's television ad. It is the first appearance by Ronald McDonald, and he's played by long-time Today Show weatherman Willard Scott.

Don't miss the strange tray of food on his head and another attached to his waist (!) where, through the magic of television, burgers magically appear!

I'm not sure he's much less creepy today, but Ronald was certainly creepy back then!

As a modern day contrast you might also want to check out this TV ad from Japan featuring a sexy female 'Ronald' (there's a male version, too.)

So here it is, Ronald McDonald's television debut:

McDonald's living salad billboard

McDonald's has followed up their award-winning Chicago "Sundial" billboard with their new "Fresh Salads" billboard, also in the Chicago area.

from ChicagoBusiness.com:

McDonald’s Corp.’s latest effort to promote its health-conscious menu items takes advantage of the saying that the medium is the message.

Green lettuce has been planted to form the words “fresh salads” on a billboard in Wrigleyville near the intersection of Addison and Clark streets to promote its four premium salads.

[McDonald's ad agency's] creative team worked closely with a horticulturalist to create a billboard that could start with 1½-inch spouts and grow into lush leaves. The garden appears to be safe from being plucked apart by birds because there is no place for them to perch and peck.

McDonald's logo jeans

According to McChronicles, these are the corporate logo jeans worn by McDonald's employees in China:

Sexy, huh?

McDonald's billboard in Yass

I'm sure this billboard looks perfectly normal to the citizens of Yass in New South Wales, Australia. But the rest of us might wonder what message McDonald's is trying to send....

via Fastfood Weblog

McDonald's towel-water milkshakes

WFTV-TV in Orlando, Florida, is reporting an interesting story about milkshakes at an Orlando-area McDonald's.

According to their report and photos, the McDonald's milkshake machine was seen being filled with 'milk' from a bucket clearly labelled "Soiled Towels Only." (see photo below)

The customer who snapped the photo of the incident reported it to McDonald's corporate headquarters and received the following e-mail:

"The machine was cleaned that morning. They sanitized the bucket to capture milk and after the repair work was done they put the milk back in the machine. This was an isolated incident."

The restaurant was sited for 12 different sanitary violations in August and now state inspectors want to see these photos.

Anyone for a "Towelshake?"

Big Mac celebrates 40 years

McDonald's Big Mac sandwich was first served 40 years ago by its inventor Jim Delligatti (pictured).

To commemorate the creation, the Big Mac Museum Restaurant has opened in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, just 40 miles north of where the first double burger, triple bun sandwich was served in Uniontown for 45 cents.

from USA Today:

"The museum has it all: the world's largest Big Mac — 14 feet tall and 12 feet wide — a bronze bust of Delligatti, a high-tech global Big Mac map and wallpaper peppered the ad 'two-all-beef-patties-special sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions-on-a-sesame seed-bun.'

It took Delligatti, now 89, two years to convince McDonald's to allow him to serve up the sandwich. After the first day, he realized that two buns was too sloppy, so the middle bun was injected."

By 1968, the Big Mac was on McDonald's menus nationwide. McDonald's sells 550 million Big Macs each year in over 100 countries.

Delligatti said he still eats an average of one Big Mac a week...and you can tell it's true from the photo!

McDonald's employee arrested for too much salt on burger

Yes, you read that right. A McDonald's employee, Kendra Bull, in Union City, Georgia was arrested after a local cop claimed he became ill from an extra salty Big N' Tasty.

Bull told cops she accidentally put too much salt and pepper on the hamburger, but since managers had been concerned about waste, she "had gone ahead and used the hamburger."

Bull, 20, said she accidentally spilled salt on hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker, who "tried to thump the salt off."

On her break, she ate a burger made with the salty meat. "It didn't make me sick," Bull told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

You can read the arrest report at The Smoking Gun.

Raw McChicken at McDonald's

Susie Felber has e-mailed Fast Food News to tell of her 'raw chicken experience' at McDonald's.

Two Sundays ago Susie dined at a McDonald's in Windsor, Connecticut while driving to New Hampshire. It was her first time to eat at McDonald's in 15 years. She was not pleased. The Chicken Sandwich that she (finally) received was raw inside. The rest of her story, in her own words is below this photo of the sandwich:

"At McDonalds my husband ordered 2 coffees and two grilled chicken sandwiches -- what we considered to be the healthy option.

Much time passed. Ten minutes later neither the coffee nor the sandwiches were ready. The store was not busy at all, there was never a line. But people who ordered burgers and fries were being served. However, when we arrived, a guy was fighting with the employees because he had paid for his breakfast item, but apparently they were all out of breakfast food.

My husband noticed people shuffling back on forth from store to behind the counter, some of whom were not in uniform. He got the impression that they possibly didn't work there and were just hanging out with their friends. Not sure, but it was odd.

My husband asked where our food was. They said it was coming. Then he asked if the coffees were ready. They were. Apparently they had been put by the drive thru window.

After about 20 minutes the sandwiches arrived. I was hungry and in a rush with a squirmy baby, but surprisingly I didn't eat it immediately, as I noticed there was heaps of mayo spilling off of it, so I opened the sandwich to rake as much as possible off.

I ate two bites. It wasn't good, but as it was road food, I didn't expect it to be great. It was hard to eat as the mayo kept making the chicken slip out of the mushy bread. I noticed the cheese hadn't melted, but that didn't bother me. On about my third or fourth bite, I noticed something was very wrong. I spit it out and yelled, "Oh my god, it's raw!"

Long story short, the McDonalds workers didn't apologise. They gave back our money in a resigned way that suggested this wasn't uncommon. The manager looked dully at me and her only answer was, "yeah...um...I don't know how that happened." But this was only after demanding an explanation as they seemed like my husband and I were making a stink over nothing even after showing them the raw sandwich.

It was a degrading experience, all the way around.

I was sick for a few days, but don't know how much was physical and how much was from the idea of it. I don't think I'll be eating chicken for a long time to come. And I'll never eat at McDonalds again."

Here's a larger version of the raw chicken at Susie's Flickr site. You can also read about it on her blog, Felber's Frolics.