And the gold medal for apathy goes to… McDonalds
McDonalds Australia made a profit of over $260 million last year.
You’d have thought they’d have spent some of that cash employing somebody to come up with some good ideas for their 2012 Olympic promotion.
Apparently they didn’t.
The most disturbing part is everyone knows when the Olympics are, (McDs are an official partner after all) and since 2005 everyone has known that London will be the host city.
I can’t help but look at each of their ‘limited edition’ Olympic celebratory sandwiches and ask despairingly, ‘Really? Is that all you’ve got?’
It feels as if there was no attempt to make any of these ‘specials’ special; like McDonalds looked at the stock control spreadsheet and thought ‘Oh, we’ve got loads of that left, that’ll do’.
Their ‘Flavour Of The Games’ are as follows
Sydney Stack
Celebrating the 2000 games through the addition of bacon, pineapple, beetroot and BBQ sauce to your beef pattie.
I guess it should come as no surprise to see that the only burger which has any relevance to its name is the Sydney one. After all that time and money developing a bespoke product they came up with… the works burger – as found in every takeaway in Sydney.
Barcelona Omelette
Relive 1992’s Spanish affair with a breakfast McMuffin featuring a spicy chorizo omelette, bacon, cheese and a ‘tangy’ tomato relish.
Perhaps the most ambitious of the range and the only breakfast item; it does thankfully feature an actual Spanish product [despite strict pasteurisation laws not allowing chorizo from actual Spain into Australia] although I’m not sure if the spiciness will fight through the cloying cheese and greasy bacon which stamp their taste profile on all McMuffins.
Paris Choc Delight
Think France in 1924 and you think three brownie bits, topped with soft serve ice cream, hot fudge sauce and mini marshmallows. Non?
Sadly not one of the ingredients is vaguely French, and the only dessert on the menu feels resolutely American in flavour. Which is a shame, since France has been known to knock out the odd dessert or two over the years.
Atlanta Pork McRib
On home soil, the US games of 96 is represented by the mighty McRib – the usual shaped pork patty, BBQ sauce, pickles and chunky onions. Although purists will point out that the ‘homestyle bun’ is a wayward departure from the much-loved regular McRib bun.
The McRib is the McRib, it’s not there to be renamed and slotted into some campaign like an emergency standby! McDonalds you should be proud of the McRib and ashamed of yourselves.
London Fish and Fries
What better way to celebrate London 2012 than with that English classic Fish and… fries! Three battered fish pieces and tartar sauce accompany your chips, fries.
You haven’t even got the gumption to call it Fish & Chips. Really? Did you think that might confuse people? ‘What? These chips look just like your fries? How can that be?’
Beijing Chicken
Let the memories of that opening ceremony come flooding back through crispy chicken, cucumber, lettuce, sweet chilli sauce and mayonnaise.
It’s hard to know where to start with this poorly thought out affair – it’s as if no-one in McDonalds’ development team had heard of China! Let alone any of the dozens of ingredients synonymous with the many cuisines of China.
Sweet chilli sauce? Is that the ‘taste of the orient’ to which your description alludes?
This is possible the laziest burger of the laziest range McDonalds have foisted on the public in a long time.
I don’t know what else you expected. It’s McDonalds. They specialize in lazy food for lazy people.