There aren't many companies out there as big as McDonald's.
They have 35,000 stores worldwide and bring in more money a year than some small countries.
With all that power and money - scandalous things are bound to happen.
McDonald's has managed to get through all of them so far - but some of them were very
shocking - here are the biggest - my name is Danny Burke and this is the Top 10 Insane
McDonalds Scandals
Starting off at number 10 we have The Intercom Hack.
On December 4th, 2016, a McDonald's intercom got hacked by a prankster.
A YouTube video shows the hacker's voice coming out of the speakers and saying -You know I'm
actually on the toilet right now and I'm just going to serve you your food.
I'm not even going to wash my hands.
I'm trying to get some special sauce out right now.- after a moment, he says -You know what
just pull forward because I'm going to give you whatever the fuck I feel like giving you-
… many people found it funny but as you might expect, McDonald's was pretty mortified.
Somehow, the hacker gained access to the intercom system by matching its wireless frequency.
The company is now trying to make sure this never happens again.
Next up at number 9, we have Hot Coffee.
In 1992, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck bought a cup of coffee from a McDonalds drive through
and spilled it on her lap, burning her.
She sued McDonald's and a jury awarded her 3 million dollars in punitive damages.
Public opinion was divided.
Some people thought it was ridiculous and said coffee is hot and that it's not McDonald's
fault she spilled it.
While this is true, there was more to the case.
Mrs. Liebeck was not driving when she spilled, she was the passenger in a car and was trying
to remove the lid to add cream and sugar when it tipped and split over her.
Back then, McDonald's made their coffee so hot that it gave Mrs. Liebeck 3rd degree burns
that required skin grafts on her inner thighs.
Some people say this court case set the precedent for frivolous lawsuits in the US …
Coming in at number 8 we have Mayor McCheese.
H.R Pufnstuf was a children's TV series that originally ran in 1969.
In 1973, the creators of the show sued McDonald's, claiming the entire McDonaldland was a copyright
infringement of their show.
They claimed that the character Mayor McCheese was a direct rip off of their character HR
Pufnstuff, himself a mayor.
A judge ruled in their famous and in a later appeals court, the creators were awarded over
a million dollars.
McDonald's was also ordered to stop producing many of the characters and to stop airing
commercials featuring the characters.
Moving on to number 7 now we have Pink Slime.
This is the nickname given to meat that has been recovered from meat processors.
Its also known as mechanically separated meat.
Many people said that McDonald's uses this pink slime as the meat for everything - whether
its a burger or a chicken nugget.
McDonald's admitted to using this and claimed to stop in 2011, switching to 100 percent
pure beef.
They even released a video featuring Mythbusters host Grant Imahara assuring viewers that McNuggets
are made of actual chicken.
For some people though, the mental image of pink slime will always be associated with
McDonald's.
Next up at number 6, we have the Strip Search Scam.
In 2004, prank caller David Stewart called a McDonalds in Mount Washington Kentucky.
Donna Summers answered the phone.
Stewart told Summers he was a police officer and that she needed to strip search an employee
who was a thief.
He then gave a description that matched employee Louise Ogborn.
Summers strip-searched her and performed increasingly strange acts on Ogborn before saying she had
to go back to the counter.
She handed the phone to her boyfriend Walter Nix who continued to follow the instructions
which became increasingly worse and surmounted in the serious sexual assault.
I won't include all the details here as some of you may find it disturbing.
Ogborn later told police she was scared for her life.
When Nix left, he called a friend and said -I have done something terribly bad- Nix received
a 5-year prison sentence while the prank caller was found not guilty by a jury, citing a lack
of direct evidence.
Next up at number 5 now we have McLibel.
This was the name given to the longest court case in English history.
Two activists were locked in a legal battle with McDonalds for 7 years.
In 1986, Helen Steel and David Morris had handed out leaflets accusing McDonalds of
encouraging litter, mistreating animals and workers and destroying rainforests.
Four years later, McDonalds served libel writs on them, demanding they retract the claims
and apologise or go to court and prove they were true.
Helen and David chose court.
The legal fees cost McDonalds over 10 million pounds.
In 1997, the judge finally gave his judgment.
He rejected claims that McDonald's was to blame for starvation in the third world or
had used lethal poisons to destroy vast areas of Central American rainforest.
However, he agreed that McDonald's hadn't been honest with their nutritional labels,
had exploited children in its advertising and paid low wages.
Next up at number 4, we have Undercooked.
In September 2017, McDonald's came under fire after several incidents linked undercooked
burger meat to illnesses in South Korea.
This included a mum who said her 5-year-old daughter suffered permanent kidney failure
after eating an undercooked patty in a Happy Meal Burger.
Another group of school children and their teacher allegedly suffered from enteritis,
which inflammation of the intestine, after eating a McDonalds Bulgogi burger.
Similar cases started being reported until McDonalds Korea Managing Director made a statement
apologizing for any illnesses caused.
They temporarily ceased the sales of the burger pending further investigation …
At number 3 we have the French Fries.
In 2002, McDonald's apologized and paid 10 million dollars to vegetarian and religious
groups for using beef flavoring in their French fries.
The plaintiffs said that when McDonald's switched to vegetable oil to cook its fries in 1990,
many people assumed they were vegetarian and McDonald's did not do enough to let people
know about the beef ingredients.
Before the apology and settlement, Hindu groups attacked a McDonalds in Bombay.
A lawyer who filed the first lawsuit on behalf of 16 million Hindus and vegetarians said
-I'm not happy with the 10 million dollars and I wish I could do better in terms of money-
Next up at number 2, we have Cheap Labor.
To say McDonald's has had a strained relationship with some of its workforce would be an understatement.
The low wages and long hours have started to put a strain on many workers and in November
2012 it reached a boiling point when a worker in New York started to go on strike.
In Brazil, McDonald's has been accused of mistreatment of pregnant employees, poverty
level pay and wage theft.
In some parts of the US, McDonald's has been accused of making guest workers take 25-hour
shifts without taking a break.
Some experts think its only a matter of time before a major labor lawsuit is presented
to the company …
And finally, at number 1, we have Racism.
In January 2015, 10 former McDonalds employees filed a lawsuit against the company saying
they were fired by their supervisors because there were -too many black people- working
there.
The lawsuit alleges that high ranking supervisors in 3 different branches would make degrading
comments about working in the -ghetto store- …. One of the claimants, Willie Betts, said
-All of a sudden, they let me go, for no other reason than I didn't fit the profile they
wanted at the store … I had no idea what they meant until I saw everyone else that
they fired as well- … the owner of one of the branches is black and told the media that
discrimination had nothing to do with the firings.
He didn't comment more except to say he's not at liberty to discuss issues regarding
employment or termination.
McDonald's has said that this is an issue for the individual franchise owners of the
stores - the lawsuit hopes to shift the responsibility for them so that they will do more to fight
discrimination.
Ok then guys, that's all I have for you in this video - which one of those did you think
was the most scandalous?
For those of you who are fans of McDonalds - could any scandal ever stop you from eating
there?
Do fans of McDonald's even exist or is it just somewhere we end up from time to time?
Very deep questions right there for you.
Thanks for watching as always guys, my name is Danny Burke and Ill see you all in the
next video!