When isn’t bad PR, bad PR? When it’s Szechuan sauce

McDonald’s made headline news last week because of a cult cartoon’s obsession with a promotional dipping sauce that was last seen in 1998. But was the lack of Szechuan sauce really a PR disaster? Or was it a stroke of genius worthy of Rick Sanchez Dimension C-137 himself?

*Warning: this post contains references to Rick and Morty – wubalubadubdub*

McDonald’s originally launched the Szechuan sauce for the release of Disney’s Mulan, but season three of Rick and Morty drew a new focus to the ‘delicious sauce’. Rick claimed: ‘it’s what it’s all about’ and he doesn’t care if it takes nine more series to get it back.

Fans were quick to pick up the campaign on social media and this was enough for McDonald’s to leap onto the good PR opportunity, gifting the show’s creator a giant container of the sauce.

Holy shit. pic.twitter.com/vNEIfHTmNU

— Justin Roiland (@JustinRoiland) July 30, 2017

Obviously, this fuelled the fanbase’s desire for what was effectively teriyaki and ketchup mixed together (let’s put that to one side). Keeping its PR cool, McDonald’s was coy, announcing a limited-edition release of the sauce for one day only.

Fans went mad for it, camping outside McDonald’s restaurant locations and travelling hundreds of miles to get a taste. And what happened? McDonald’s didn’t supply enough – some locations had none and many more had a measly 20 samples.

Who the squanch believes this was anything but a carefully choreographed strategy? Are we really expected to think THE fast-food giant couldn’t organise enough sauce deliveries?

The ‘disaster’ hit headline news around the world, as people were left disappointed by not having enough of a McDonald’s product. How would you feel if your product or service was in the news because people couldn’t get enough of it? Probably pretty good.

And what did McDonald’s do next?

You spoke. We’ve listened. Lots more #SzechuanSauce and locations. Details soon. And that’s the wayyy the news goes! pic.twitter.com/ooIrbZBsOw

— McDonald’s (@McDonalds) October 8, 2017

That’s right, as an ‘apology’ it’s making the sauce more widely available so fans can get it everywhere. Bravo McDonald’s, bravo.

So how can you Get Schwifty like McDonald’s? Follow these simple rules:

1. Track mentions of your brand on and offline – if McDonald’s hadn’t been aware of Rick and Morty’s fandom’s desire for Szechuan sauce, this would have been dead in the water. Make sure you have the best monitoring available so you don’t miss a single opportunity.
2. Don’t be afraid to engage with your audience – speaking to fans and responding to their demands is one of the main purposes of social media for brands; get stuck in and have fun with it.
3. Approach the right influencers first – McDonald’s sent the product to Justin Roiland, co-creator of the show and voice of leading characters Rick and Morty. Don’t know who your influencers are? Get a database that does the work for you.
4. You’re allowed to have ‘bad press’ – McDonald’s aced this situation by undersupplying the promotional product. There’s very few ways this could have backfired – if no one had claimed the sauce then it wouldn’t have mattered. You shouldn’t be worried about your fans wanting more, this gives you all the power. And if the media thinks you’ve made a mistake? Ride it out, all the press does is make you seem more desirable.
5. Give the people what they want – McDonald’s has now made moves to make the sauce available for everyone. If it had remained elusive, they could have pushed fans away. It moved quickly to ‘rectify’ the ‘mistake’ giving the fans their pay off.

No one wants to be a PR Morty, and McDonald’s has shown how easy it is to be a PR Rick. What did you think of McDonald’s stunt? Let us know in the comments below: