Rick & Morty Fans Are Really Mad at McDonald’s Over Their Botched Szechuan Sauce Promotion

They really Jerry'd this one.
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After Rick & Morty revealed Rick’s obsession with McDonald’s discontinued Szechuan sauce, both reminding people that this was a thing that once existed and elevating it to cult obsession status in the same moment, the fast-food chain took the opportunity to cash in on the craze. They sent a jug of the sauce, which was originally a promotional product for Mulan, to the show’s co-creator Justin Roiland, as well as to a few fans. Then they announced they’d be re-releasing the sauce for one day only, along with the launch of their new buttermilk chicken tenders.

https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/914626606680952832

The sauce, tenders, and posters were only stocked at select locations, with limited supply. On their website, they wrote, “And when we say limited, we mean really, really limited!” Even with that warning, McDonald’s definitely overshot the mark of “exclusivity hype” and landed in “disappointing PR disaster” territory. For a sauce that sold for $15,000 on eBay, you might think they’d have known fans would line up around the block for this. And you might also have expected them to provide locations with more than TWENTY PACKETS EACH, as is being reported. Some locations listed on the website as being a Szechuan spot allegedly didn’t have any supply at all.

Fans are pissed.

https://twitter.com/MatthewLCurtis/status/916719450254176257

https://twitter.com/fawich/status/916727172974432256

https://twitter.com/BradleyWBrower/status/916729572145745921

And of course, some of those lucky fans who did manage to get the sauce have already put theirs up on eBay.

https://twitter.com/BuffaloSousa/status/916776452863021056

Out of curiosity, I checked eBay to see what’s for sale, and saw people selling the sticker tops to their sauce packets, a “do it yourself recipe” for the sauce, an empty buttermilk tenders box, and–my personal favorite–a framed picture of someone’s sauce packet.

(via eBay)

(featured image: Adult Swim)

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Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.