{"id":9759,"date":"2017-10-09T10:45:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T18:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/10\/09\/news-3532\/"},"modified":"2017-10-09T10:45:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T18:45:43","slug":"news-3532","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/10\/09\/news-3532\/","title":{"rendered":"Was the &#8216;Rick and Morty&#8217; Szechuan Sauce Shortage a False Flag Planned By McDonald\u2019s?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/59dbb79c7d7f9930318fd873\/lede\/1507571614662-shutterstock_65290495-1.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Credit to Author: Louise Matsakis| Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2017 17:58:52 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Saturday, for one day only, McDonald&#8217;s offered fans of <i> Rick and Morty<\/i>\u2014an adult science fiction show on Adult Swim\u2014the chance to experience a <a href=\"http:\/\/knowyourmeme.com\/memes\/mcdonalds-mulan-szechuan-sauce\" target=\"_blank\">meme<\/a> in real life. <\/p>\n<p>In the premiere of the just-concluded third season of the show, Rick, one of the main characters, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=82&#038;v=B4nH9aIVSaQ\" target=\"_blank\">delivers a soliloquy about<\/a> his love for McDonald&#8217;s Szechuan Sauce, a then obscure condiment offered by the fast food chain in 1998 as part of a promotion for Disney&#8217;s <i> Mulan<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>The sauce quickly became an obsession among <i> Rick and Morty<\/i>&#8216;s fans, and in it McDonald&#8217;s saw a revenue opportunity. Six months after the Szechuan Sauce episode premiered, the fast food chain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/food\/mcdonald-s-beloved-szechuan-dipping-sauce-making-temporary-return-t116960\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a> it would be bringing the condiment back\u2014but only for a single day, October 7, and only at select locations.<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width: 550px;\" data-iframely-id=\"oKS9w8p\" class=\"article__embed article__embed--iframely\">\n<div style=\"left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\" data-iframely-smart-iframe=\"true\"><iframe  src= width=\"100%\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" ><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As we <a href=\"https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/a3k9aj\/rick-and-morty-szechuan-sauce-mcdonalds-ebay\">reported<\/a> Sunday, the entire promotion was an absolute shit show. McDonald&#8217;s couldn&#8217;t keep up with demand for the garlic-filled sweet sauce, and fans were extremely angry. Fights <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/video\/news\/video-1147204\/Caught-camera-Brawl-breaks-Chicago-McDonalds.html\" target=\"_blank\">reportedly<\/a> broke out at McDonald&#8217;s locations. Packets of the sauce <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebay.com\/itm\/Szechuan-Sauce-McDonalds-Rick-and-Morty-3-Sealed-Packs-Multiple-Packs-IN-HAND-\/302481319832?hash=item466d4aa798:g:2RUAAOSw4P1Z2m8Q\" target=\"_blank\">sold<\/a> for hundreds of dollars on eBay, fans sent hundreds of angry tweets to McDonald&#8217;s, and dozens of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=szechuan+sauce&#038;source=lnms&#038;tbm=nws&#038;sa=X&#038;ved=0ahUKEwjXmrXW7OPWAhXFxYMKHWyWAu0Q_AUICygC&#038;biw=1286&#038;bih=722\" target=\"_blank\">news stories<\/a> were written. <\/p>\n<p>Most upsettingly, <a href=\"https:\/\/fightfor15.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">low-wage<\/a> McDonald&#8217;s employees had to bear the brunt of irate customers upset over a one-ounce packet of sauce from a fictional cartoon that can be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myrecipes.com\/recipe\/szechuan-teriyaki-dipping-sauce\" target=\"_blank\">made<\/a> in roughly ten minutes. Despite all the chaos, McDonald&#8217;s clearly came out on top. This is the first time it&#8217;s been noteworthy for anything other than selling unhealthy food in years. <\/p>\n<p>By Sunday night, McDonald&#8217;s had announced that Szechuan Sauce would be coming back in wider release this winter.<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width: 550px;\" data-iframely-id=\"xJcASqk\" class=\"article__embed article__embed--iframely\">\n<div style=\"left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\" data-iframely-smart-iframe=\"true\"><iframe  src= width=\"100%\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" ><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Many <i> Rick and Morty<\/i> fans, as well as some professional public relations experts, are speculating that the Szechuan Sauce shortage\u2014and subsequent wide-release announcement\u2014may have been planned from the start. A sauce-themed false flag operation, if you will.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that they planned this exactly. It kinda reminds me of the Taylor Swift Apple Music situation,&#8221; Ed Zitron, the CEO and founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/ez-pr.com\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\">EZPR<\/a>, a public relations firm, told me over Twitter DM. <\/p>\n<p>In 2015, Taylor Swift refused to stream her new album on Apple Music because it wasn&#8217;t paying royalties to artists for customers&#8217; using the service&#8217;s three-month free trial. Apple quickly reversed the decision, and was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/3047700\/apple-appeases-taylor-swift-agrees-to-pay-royalties-during-free-trial\" target=\"_blank\">applauded<\/a> for changing course. All the while, it drummed up interest in Apple Music.<\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/rickandmorty\/comments\/75583u\/mcdonalds_responds\/do3plry\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reddit<\/a>, Discord, and Twitter, fans have openly speculated that this was the plan from the get-go. &#8220;The phrase &#8216;you spoke. We listened&#8217; is the biggest giveaway that this was totally planned,&#8221; Reddit user Vinylzen said in a post to the <i> Rick and Morty<\/i> subreddit. Many other users on that Reddit thread seemed to buy into the theory as well.<\/p>\n<p>Another user on Discord, Z-ark07 said &#8220;the whole sauce thing was a good plan for McDonald&#8217;s.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width: 550px;\" data-iframely-id=\"SBlvb0x\" class=\"article__embed article__embed--iframely\">\n<div style=\"left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\" data-iframely-smart-iframe=\"true\"><iframe  src= width=\"100%\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" ><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"max-width: 550px;\" data-iframely-id=\"8wdMGV8\" class=\"article__embed article__embed--iframely\">\n<div style=\"left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\" data-iframely-smart-iframe=\"true\"><iframe  src= width=\"100%\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" ><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>When I asked McDonald&#8217;s about what its true Szechuan sauce strategy was, a representative simply directed me to the same <a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/McDonalds\/status\/917169818725384192\" target=\"_blank\">tweet<\/a> from Sunday night. Motherboard has no insider knowledge about what the original plan was, but we&#8217;d like to know. <b>Are you an employee of McDonald&#8217;s and have information about whether the shortage was purposeful? Here&#8217;s how you can contact <a href=\"http:\/\/www.louisematsakis.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\">me<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/ypnzeb\/jason-koebler-secure-contact-information\">my colleagues<\/a> securely.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Justin Roiland, the co-creator of <i> Rick and Morty<\/i>, said on Twitter that he and the show had nothing to do with the sauce situation. &#8220;Not happy w\/how this was handled,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width: 550px;\" data-iframely-id=\"kC1aaWy\" class=\"article__embed article__embed--iframely\">\n<div style=\"left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\" data-iframely-smart-iframe=\"true\"><iframe  src= width=\"100%\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" ><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Zitron, meanwhile, said he&#8217;s seen similar schemes before in public relations. The formula is anger the fans of a trendy TV show, cause a controversy, then reap the benefits of newfound notoriety. &#8220;Remember how there was an INSTANT response despite it being a weekend?,&#8221; Zitron said, referring to the Taylor Swift Apple Music situation. &#8220;Same thing here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you think McDonald&#8217;s just made like, 1000 of them [sauce packets] and then went welp that&#8217;s it. Delete the packaging folks!&#8221; Zitron said. &#8220;Of course not. They knew it&#8217;d get some people mad. They probably didn&#8217;t predict riots but definitely knew people would be enraged. That image response was likely pre-drafted and ready to post.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/vb7kvx\/rick-morty-szechuan-sauce-shortage-fights-mcdonalds\" target=\"bwo\" >https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/rss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/59dbb79c7d7f9930318fd873\/lede\/1507571614662-shutterstock_65290495-1.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Credit to Author: Louise Matsakis| Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2017 17:58:52 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you know more about yesterday\u2019s McNugget-related debacle, please tell us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[10643,13328,10378],"tags":[13656,15574,15596,15597,14311,454],"class_list":["post-9759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-independent","category-motherboard","category-security","tag-discord","tag-mcdonalds","tag-mcnuggets","tag-public-relations","tag-rick-and-morty","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}