hi there may i take your order please the golden arches has dominated american culture for many
decades now and of course there's been surprises along the way here are 10 times mcdonald's made
our jaws drop the mcrib was first developed by the u.s army and i'd like the mcrib to be
available year round in 1981 the same year that mcdonald's gave the world the chicken mcnugget the
franchise unleashed another boneless wonder the mcrib sandwich made of reconstituted pork parts
fashioned in the shape of a small rack of ribs but the original product was not designed in-house
but by the u.s military's combat capabilities development command soldier center in natick
massachusetts a military scientist was tasked with finding a way to deliver protein-rich food
namely meat to soldiers via meal kits and pork was decided on as a cheaper alternative to beef
and having more nutrients than chicken because the government and therefore the military doesn't put
patents or copyrights on anything it develops the national pork producers council invested the money
to try and make the product viable on a wider commercial scale this got mcdonald's interested
she might leave and never come back just like the mcrib mcdee's executive chef renee arend
the inventor of the chicken mcnugget was tasked with coming up with a pork sandwich and the rest
is history literally because unlike the chicken mcnugget the mcrib sandwich had a much less
successful roll out while initially successful in the midwest by 1985 sales had declined so much
that executives removed it from the menu the mcrib made a comeback in 1994 as a promotional item for
the live-action movie version of the flintstones and remained on the menu at many restaurants for
another decade in 2005 it was decided to put the mcrib on a farewell tour which was so successful
they did another goodbye in 2006 and in 2007 but after that there have only been a dozen or so
times when the sandwich has temporarily returned so if you're a fan of the mcrib keep your eyes
open for its next eventual return they've been preparing for the robot future yeah we're gonna
kick it up a notch bam in his 2001 book fast food nation eric schlosser estimated that nearly one in
eight american citizens had been employed at one point by mcdonald's but the truth is the company
has been trying to shed flesh and blood employees for a long time now even in the late 90s when the
intranet was more of a trend the company began experimenting with ordering at electronic kiosks
inside restaurants instead of talking to a 17 year old at the counter it's so easy to order on your
phone nowadays and then pick up a prepared bag of food at the restaurant that you sometimes forget
that the only human involved in making the meal is wrapping the burger and placing it in the bag
considering the fact that 70 of sales in the united states comes via the drive-through window
it's no surprise that in the last few years more and more often the voice on the other end of the
loudspeaker is not even a real person but a very simple ai program that cheerfully takes your order
and quickly repeats it to make sure it's correct mcds almost partnered with nasa my name is peter
and i work at the brewer nasha the mcdonald's marketing team never sleeps because they know that
if you aren't always telling people how great the experience at their restaurant is they're liable
to forget and keep scrolling through their news feed one of the zanier promotion attempts happened
in the mid-1990s when mcdonald's found out that nasa was planning to send a spacecraft to a nearby
asteroid which just happened to have the name wait for it 449 hamburger it was discovered in
1899 by german astronomers and named after the city of hamburg but mcdonald's wasn't going to
let this golden arches opportunity go to waste it won't go to waste there were some serious
discussions between the fast food giant and nasa because it was seen as a win-win where a bit of
money from mcdonald's to help fund the mission would get a lot of publicity for the space agency
which would be helpful for what is really just a rather mundane trip to a big rock in the end the
project was cancelled because mcdonald's didn't want to pony up for the actual price tag which is
a bit of a shame just picture a silly commercial of ronald planting a golden arches flag on the
rock and saying it's one small step for a clown their burgers are actually one hundred percent
beef the hottest juiciest quarter pounder yet made with a hundred percent fresh beef the quality of
mcdonald's burgers has had a checkered history in the 1960s the idea of going to one of their
restaurants anywhere in the country and having a burger of identical quality served to you
immediately was a welcome novelty but over the years there was competition from other fast food
franchises and from upscale restaurants that were willing to tackle the old barbecue standard upping
everyone's expectation for what a good burger should be this is a tasty burger perhaps it's
inevitable that when a company is around for so long and is so successful that people ultimately
look for problems with it both accurate and not for a long time the rumor was that to combat the
perception that their burgers were less than mcdonald's began assuring the public of their
commitment to quality and taste by printing 100 beef on the wrappers of products like quarter
pounders and big macs the rumor was that 100 beef was the name of a shell company run by mcdonald's
which meant it wasn't a statement of fact but a logo while not at all true so many people believed
the story that it forced the company to put out several press releases and invite journalists
to their production facilities to prove that yes their burgers are actually made with 100
actual beef what is grimace supposed to be here comes grimace you got some burgers i can steal huh
the inhabitants of mcdonald bland all seem quite sensible in a setting meant to invoke a fast food
restaurant scene there's mayor mccheese the fry kids as well as the hamburglar whose name gives
him no choice in the matter of his profession while ronald himself might be the only odd one out
as a half human half clown there's also the big purple thing grimace is a vaguely triangular biped
with arms and a face but in terms of description that's about it he doesn't talk much about himself
and none of the other characters ever seem to bring up the topic of what he actually is
i don't know we don't talk about them much in the early 70s grimace was an evil character in league
with a hamburglar to illicitly get his hands on the fast food goods only recently did a mcdonald's
executive spill the fries and reveal that grimace is meant to be a giant taste bud meaning he's
supposed to suggest that mcdonald's food tastes good it's a bit of a head scratcher but looking
at him with this new info i guess it makes sense ronald mcdonald has a hotly debated origin story
god this is worse than having ronald mcdonald for a father it's no contest who the most
famous clown in the world is it's ronald mcdonald by a country mile but it was a bit of a rocky road
to get where we are today the original character was indeed a clown but he wore a paper cup on his
nose and a cardboard box on his head he was created by willard scott known at the time
as a radio dj who also played bozo the clown on local television scott claims he came up with
the name and the idea of how to portray ronald in commercials but mcdonald's doesn't mention
anything about scott's involvement except that he played the character briefly in the mid-60s
and that could have been the end of it except for the fact that scott didn't disappear at the
face of the earth but instead became a well-known tv weatherman for the today show for over three
decades i've known i wanted to be a clown since i found out clowns were just people with makeup in
interviews and memoirs he reiterates his position that ronald would be nothing without him and he
even made a point of starring in a commercial for burger king in 1992. while the design of ronald
was changed not long after scott's tenure to the happy red-haired clown we all recognized today
it should be mentioned that the illustration in the 1967 copyright patent is pure nightmare
fuel the chicken mcnugget changed u.s farming what type of food is a mcnugget some type of uh
paella the chicken mcnugget the tiny little treat that comes in packs of 4
6 10 and 20 is such a mainstay for contemporary customers that it's hard to believe that
mcdonald's existed for decades without them in the eternal meal time struggle of chicken vs bone
mcdonald's first executive chef rene arend created the recipe in 1979 using boneless reconstituted
pieces of chicken which were battered and deep fried while the head honchos at mcds hoped the
slow rollout in 1981 at certain locations would do decent business they were completely unprepared
for its ultimate success not only were the initial restaurants clamoring for more but almost
every other franchise across the country wanted to get in on the action we pay for it we want it all
mcdonald's very quickly became the largest purchaser of chicken in the united states
but it still took two years to build the facilities to de-bone and grind the meat
and then fashion it into the four specific mcnugget shapes even when all the facilities
were set up the chicken farmers of america were not prepared for this demand and for a period
of time in the 80s there was a national chicken shortage and price spikes thanks to these nuggets
and it wasn't a fad with many customers especially kids bailing on hamburgers
completely so it's no surprise that the mcnuggets are still going strong in fact sales jumped 10
in 2017 when the company removed artificial preservatives used in their preparation
mcdonald's made a video game you know what's boring sitting there playing that mind-numbing
game by the 1980s surveys showed that kids would recognize the golden arches of mcdonald's before
various religious symbols marketing to adults was obviously helpful but broadcasting commercials
during blocks of children's programming definitely ensured that parents would get a steady influx of
begging and pleading for happy meals in the early 90s the company was so successful that they just
asked why not have kids play our commercials enter mckids a 1992 2d side-scrolling video game
for the nintendo entertainment system it looked and played a lot like super mario bros 3 which
hey if you're going to rip off a video game you may as well choose one of the very best
learn from the best you play as mick or mac and because eating mcdonald's can be done together
a two-player mode means you and a friend can play together at the same time and go on a
journey through mcdonald land to find ronald's magic bag that the hamburglar stole by collecting
puzzle cards and giving them to familiar mcdonald land faces like grimace and birdie
the graphics are fine for its time the controls are quite good and there's just enough variety
in the level design to prevent you from getting bored international mcdonald's change the game
wow this restaurant is so international as the movie the founder showed ray kroc was not going
to lose his chance to squeeze every dollar he could out of hungry customers so why stop at
the border it wasn't long before mcdonald's was expanding and opening restaurants across the world
and while of course they brought the burger and fry mainstays that satisfied us citizens
executives knew that appealing to particular regional tastes had its own financial advantages
due to religious beliefs against eating beef and pork in india it seems like the company would be
facing an uphill battle but a billion potential customers were waiting so there are both chicken
and vegetarian-based patties for the big macs and in addition to fries rice bowls are popular sides
it should come as no surprise that different countries have different dipping sauces that
range from fiery to sour cream like where's the dipping sauce and in some cases it's
amazing that american restaurants haven't brought some of these unique menu items over
like the tamago double mac which adds pepper sauce and a poached egg inside your traditional big mac
mcdees didn't know their monopoly game was crooked you don't go by monopoly man that game is nuts
since 1987 mcdonald's has had a promotion where customers can win prizes by collecting stickers
that come on various product wrappers and cups that mirror the traditional monopoly board game
unbeknownst to the company and the public at large the firm overseeing the distribution
of stickers had a security problem the head of the department was jerry jacobson and he began
hoarding the winning game pieces which included prizes for cash cars and vacations in the late 90s
he would give them to friends and family to redeem and then get a cut for helping set it up at one
point he got members of organized crime involved to help cover his tracks but foolishly he went by
the name uncle jerry so it wasn't hard to put the pieces together and he was eventually caught these
kids are going to jail jacobson ultimately spends three years in prison and while plenty of lawsuits
were thrown about involving mcdonald's and the other companies involved over who was ultimately
responsible apparently the public didn't think it was too big of a deal because the monopoly
promotion was back within a few years why stop now check out another great babbletop video thanks