The Szechuan Sauce Hype
Rick and Morty has become a huge hit on Cartoon Networks late night programming, Adult Swim. The show is described as an adult animated science-fiction sitcom that premiered in 2013 and just recently concluded its third season in 2017. The show has a huge fan base and memes and other show references can be found all across social media. The show has such a large following that in the season 3 opening when main character Rick, is searching for Szechuan sauce fans began to urge McDonalds to bring the sauce back onto circulation.
McDonalds originally released Szechuan sauce in 1998 as a promotion for the upcoming movie Mulan. At the time Disney had a promotional deal with McDonalds so to advertise the new movie the sauce was made to resemble traditional Chinese teriyaki Szechuan sauce. The sauce originally came with happy meal nuggets and a Mulan toy. After the movies airing the sauce was discontinued. That is until Rick and Morty made a joke about the sauce and fans desperately wanted to try it for themselves.
After the episode aired fans blew up the internet demanding that McDonalds bring back the sauce. First the company sent a jar of the condiment to the shows co-creator Justin Roiland who tweeted it out to all his followers. The internet demand continued and McDonalds released an announcement that they would bring the sauce back. However the company stated that the sauce would only be available in “limited quantities for a limited run available in restaurant for one day only.” This created huge issues for Rick and Morty fans along with McDonalds. McDonalds produced a list of restaurants that would be carrying the sauce and fans traveled across states and camped out in huge lines for the Szechuan sauce however a majority of them left empty handed.
Cops were called to handle protesting customers. Fans criticized McDonalds upset that they had run out of Szechuan sauce so quickly. There were even sauce packets being sold on Ebay for over 100 dollars each. The co-creators were dissapointed as much as the fans were by the way that McDonalds handled the situation but also tweeted out to the fans asking them not to take their anger out on the employees as it was not their fault. McDonalds did not understand the size and desire of the fan base and missed the opportunity for a huge premotion.
McDonalds faced serious backlash from fans of the show and the shows creators. The company has now promised to bring back the sauce in a higher quantity in all their restaurants in the winter of 2017–18
