History UsefulNotes / McDonalds

Did somebody say [[https://mcdonalds.com [=McDonald's=]]]?

Did somebody say [=McDonald's=]?

** The new Happy Meal mascots' silly, chaotic nature is meant to cash in on the success of the Minions from ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe''.

* AscendedFanNickname: For a number of years, the name "Macca's" was a popular slang term used amongst Australian customers. So much so that [=McDonald=]'s Australia would eventually trademark and use the name officially, going as far as to temporarily rebrand some of their restaurants to "Macca's" in the weeks leading up to Australia Day in 2013.

* The ''WesternAnimation/GravedaleHigh'' episode "Monster on Trial" shows a very brief shot of a [=McDonald's=] ad (not a BlandNameProduct but actually reading "[=McDonald's=]) in a scene where the pages of a phone book are flipped through.

** A sketch in "Kramer vs. Showgirls" has a bit where people who have seen ''Film/AmericanPie'' rush over to a [=McDonald's=] for their applie pies and a lot of screaming is heard, implying they burned themselves trying to imitate the scene where Jim tried to pleasure himself with an apple pie.

** A brief skit in "Zeb and Kevin Electric Hot Tub Canvas" has [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] meet Ronald [=McDonald=] in a bar and state that while what Ronald does isn't his style, he still appreciates what he's accomplished (an obvious dig at the reputation [=McDonald's=] food as for being unhealthy).

* IconicLogo: The Golden Arches were initially thought up by Richard [=McDonald=] in 1952 to be part of a new building design for the San Bernardino restaurant featuring arches on each side. His idea was refined by architect Stanley Clark Metson into the first standardized [=McDonald's=] building design, featuring a yellow-trimmed slanted roof and two yellow parabolic arches on each side. This inspired the first version of the Golden Arches logo in 1962, which had two overlapping arches and a diagonal line crossing them to emulate the look of a [=McDonald's=] as seen from the side. The current Golden Arches design debuted in 1968, a year before Metson's design was replaced by the "mansard roof" one.

* KidsMealToy: The iconic Happy Meals feature toys based on licensed properties, as well as the OriginalGeneration [=McDonaldland=] characters.

** One of the sketches in "Boogie Bardstown in: No Need, I Have Coupons" has Officer Big Mac investigate the murder of Mayor [=McCheese=]. The culprit turns out to be Birdie, who tries to seduce Big Mac so she can kill him, only to be gunned down by the immediately remourseful rookie cop.

** "Chipotle Miserables" has a trailer for a spoof of ''Literature/LesMiserables'' using the [=McDonaldland=] characters titled ''Les Miserobble Robble''. Here, the Hamburglar was given his name by Ronald [=McDonald=] as punishment for stealing Big Macs to feed his family, looks after Birdie the Early Bird's egg after she is killed and cooked, and leads a revolt against the [=McDonaldland=] employees.

** A sketch in "Max Caenan in: Why Would He Know if His Mother's a Size Queen" has a brief sketch where the [=McDonaldland=] gang celebrate Ronald's birthday. After Ronald makes his wish blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, Grimace becomes female (gaining lipstick and bare breasts) and Ronald remarks "Now that's what I call a Happy Meal".

** The [=McAfrika=] (beef, cheese, tomatoes and salad in a pitta-style sandwich) was a product that wasn't exactly ''bad'', but a victim of bad timing and a bad name. It was sold in Norway exclusively, in honor of the 2002 Winter Olympic games. Seeing as Southern Africa was undergoing a famine at the time where starvation was causing a bad death toll, a place promoting fast food sandwiches seemed incredibly poor judgement. They apologized, and tried to make amends with donation boxes in their restaurants, but they didn't learn their lesson; it returned for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and got the same response.

That's probably how you got to this page -- it's probably ''the'' most common "not-a-wiki-word" that appears on the Wiki/TVTropes Wiki, since our wiki parser automatically converts CamelCase into article links.

** Mac Tonight in America, as a result of an injunction filed against [=McDonald's=] by the Music/BobbyDarin estate[[labelnote:explanation]]Mac's whole gimmick was singing [=McDonald's=]-themed lyrics to the song "Mack the Knife", Darin's cover of which being the most famous version (and the basis for Mac Tonight as a whole). Darin's son Dodd Mitchell Darin claimed the company was infringing on his father's trademark and sued [=McDonald's=], obtaining an injunction preventing the song from being used in TV and radio ads, and Mac Tonight's concept became TheArtifact without it.[[/labelnote]]. His last commercial appearance altogether, in ads for Singapore and China, was in 2007.

** The very first [=McDonalds=] opened in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant, and sold hamburgers alongside tamales, chili, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and barbecued pork, beef, and chicken sandwiches, all of which were served on china plates and with silverware. However the restaurant was not profitable and so in 1948 it was retooled into a burgers-only restaurant, with potato chips, coffee, pie, and sodas added to the menu. Fries and milkshakes joined the menu a year later.

*** Their "adult" menu (1996) included the Arch Deluxe (a "premium" burger with higher-quality toppings), a grilled chicken sandwich, a fried chicken sandwich (replacing the [=McChicken=]) and a larger fish sandwich. This whole line was intentionally targeted at adults, with ads featuring children repulsed over the food. While this burger line was one of the biggest flops in fast food history, the Filet o' Fish permanently adopted the larger size; the grilled and fried chicken sandwiches were simply renamed; and the [=McChicken=] came back. Some of the "adult" menu concepts were {{Re Tool}}ed into the Big N' Tasty (2000-2011), which was also nearly identical to the [=McDLT=], and the Angus line of burgers introduced in 2006 and phased out in 2013.
*** The phase-out of the Angus Third-Pounder burgers had less to do with lack of market appeal and more to do with [=McDonald=]'s need to streamline their production process; the new "Quarter Pounder Burgers" line that replaced the Angus burgers do not require an additional grill dedicated to them, since they're made with the same 1/4-pound (precooked) meat patties used in their regular and Double Quarter Pounders.

** The Filet of Fish has always been a hit, but other than that, they've had no luck with seafood. Case in point, the [=McGratin=] Croquette, designed with Japanese markets in mind. It was sort of a combination of chopped shrimp, mashed potatoes, and deep fried macaroni made into a patty and fried hamburger style. Japanese consumers were clearly put off by it. Back in the West, 1993’s [=McLobster=] met a similar fate due to the difficulty of promoting something as expensive as lobster as a casual option (although it briefly re-emerged in Canada in the early ‘10s).

** A similar problem was the Roast Beef Sandwich, Introduced in 1968 to compete with Arby's. Though it sold well, the menu item required equipping every location with a meat-slicer, an expense that would prevent the sandwich from ever turning a profit. Executives discontinued the sandwich as soon as they realized this, and never brought it back.

** Salad Shakers were introduced in 2000 as a fun new way to eat salad (out of a plastic cup with a clear dome lid), Salad Shakers needed to be shaken up after adding in the dressing in order to distribute it. Though the concept worked (plenty of people do the same thing with plastic containers every day for lunch), they were replaced by Premium Salads (served in regular bowls) in 2003. 

* FoodPorn: [=McDonald's=] certainly pushes it hard in the commercials. Fun fact: When you see the burgers on TV, the pickles stick out the side so the viewer can see them. If you're actually ''working'' at [=McDonalds=], the pickle goes in the center of the burger so that it can get bitten into from any direction. In much the same vein, sandwiches prepared to be filmed in a commercial have their sauce ''carefully'' pipetted in so it can be seen in the final footage.
* FreshmanFears: One commercial from the 1980s called "First Day," has a boy encounter all kinds of problems on his first day of high school, including being the shortest person in gym, running afoul of the hall monitors, and attending the wrong class. The accompanying song also discusses this trope in the lyrics.

** They're rather infamous for this, frequently taking other businesses to court for "trademark infringement", typically for including the prefix "Mc" or "Mac" in their names. They once sued a Scottish café owner called [=McDonald=], even though the place had been in business for over a century.
** There's also the infamous [=McLibel=] trial when the corporation went after two activists distributing pamphlets denouncing what they considered its destructive and harmful business practices. In doing so, the activists chose to fight in court and [=McDonalds=] found itself in publicly humiliated in the courtroom attempting to defend claims that were patently ridiculous when put under cross-examination on the stand. This included their marketing claim that everything they sold was nutritious; the opposing lawyer backed them into a corner forcing to claim that includes the soft drinks, because they have water. Eventually, the court fight was a draw: the judge declared that [=McDonalds=] credibly refuted some of the claims of the activists, but others held up. However the entire debacle was definitely a PyrrhicVictory for the company due to the StreisandEffect.
** On the other side, the oft-repeated Stella Liebeck case was against [=McDonalds=]. You know, the one where the woman spilled hot coffee over herself while driving, sued, and won millions of dollars? The whole story, though, is a lot more nuanced: the coffee [=McDonalds=] served was at 180-190°F (82.2-87.8°C); Liebeck's attorneys argued is way too high and made the coffee defective because it was just too plain hot to serve, or because it was too hot to serve without a prominent warning about the dangers, or both.[[note]]Liebeck's suit was in strict product liability, one of the main elements of which is that the product has to be defective in order for the plaintiff to win. You can allege that a product was defective in one of three ways: a manufacturing defect (i.e. it wasn't made according to the manufacturer's specifications), a design defect (the product, as designed, was too unsafe to be marketed), and failure to warn (the product, while admittedly not too unsafe to be marketed, needed an adequate warning label to make sure that people didn't misuse it and cause injury to themselves). Since the temperature of the coffee was specified by [=McDonald's=] corporate policy, they couldn't claim a manufacturing defect, so they said either the coffee was just plain too hot to be safe (design defect) or that the warnings weren't prominent enough (failure to warn).[[/note]] Also, Liebeck wasn't even driving the car (it was her grandson's Ford Probe, who had pulled over to let her add cream and sugar) and had the cup between her thighs because the car had no cupholders,[[note]]A fact that may have factored into the increasing placement of cupholders in cars around that time; no doubt some lawyers serving the Big Three realized that had things gone a little differently, [=McDonald=]'s could have pointed the finger at ''Ford'' for forcing Liebeck to hold the cup between her thighs instead of giving her a cupholder. Given the increasing rate at which people were eating and drinking in cars in the 90s, putting cupholders made sense for automakers not only as a creature-comfort selling point but as a shield from liability from drivers and passengers injured by their drinks and car accident victims claiming that the accident might have been avoided if the driver had had their hands on the wheel instead of on their cup.[[/note]] she was wearing cotton sweatpants which absorbed the hot liquid and kept it next to her skin, which caused her to end up with 3rd-degree burns--some of which were in [[GroinAttack some very sensitive areas]] (think: if you spill hot coffee from a cup held between your thighs in a cramped car, where would it go?)--and needed over a week in the hospital (during which time she lost nearly 20% of her weight) and two years of further medical treatment, and they initially tried to settle for $20,000 to cover medical expenses (the company initially responded with just $800). The trial itself saw the jury award Liebeck $200,000 in compensation and $2.7 million in punitive damages, but the judge cut this down to $640,000 and they later settled out of court.

* RefugeInAudacity: A rumor popped up in the late 1970's that [=McDonald=]'s used ground-up earthworms in their hamburgers, a hoax which Ray Kroc deflated just by pointing out that nightcrawlers cost four times as much per pound compared to ground beef.

** Music/DonnaSummer's "She Works Hard For the Money" was remade into "She gets more for her money, 'Cause [=McDonald's=] treats her right."

* ''Film/{{Sleeper}}'' - in 2173, Creator/WoodyAllen's fugitive character (formerly a health food store owner) has been assimilated into society. He leaves a Mc Donalds with the sign reading "Over 795,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Served".
* ''Film/TimeAfterTime'' - time traveler H.G. Wells looks for food at a Mc Donalds in current-day San Francisco - unfamiliar with modern food, he parrots the order of the guy in front of him until. to his relief, he sees tea on the menu and finds out fries are 'pommes frites'. Later, on a date, he comments the food is much better than 'that Scottish place'.
* ''Bye Bye Love'', a mid-90s comedy about divorcee fatherhood, starring Paul Reiser, Randy Quiad and Creator/RobReiner, and underwritten by the Golden Arches. As per ''Mac and Me'' above, ProductPlacement abounds, but without the {{Narm}} that makes ''M&M'' SoBadItsGood, this film is [[SoOkayItsAverage completely unmemorable]].

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': When Arthur has to come to terms with the destruction of Earth, he realizes that it's simply [[AMillionIsAStatistic too big for him to comprehend.]] So he tries to think about the destruction of England, then [=McDonalds=], and finally settles for being sad about never getting a Big Mac again.

* ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'': Grantville's [=McDonalds=] is taken over by the Committee of Correspondence, who use it as a headquarters for their quest to spread American-style political values across Europe. As the Committees spread across Europe, they take the "Freedom Arches" with them.

* An episode of Series/AllInTheFamily had Archie talk about franchising the bar he recently acquired. He compares it to [=McDonalds=], saying he'll have "The Golden Archies" and a sign that says "Over two million boopabloops served". (This was AVerySpecialEpisode where Archie was hopped up on pills.)

* In the Season 3 premier of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', Rick expresses a fondness for the promotional szechuan sauce sold during the release of ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' while the [[TheFederation Galactic Federation]] is probing his mind and Rick has to take them to a certain memory. [[spoiler:It's a subtle hint that Rick was actually lying about said memory.]]

The corporation operates a fully-furnished, constantly updated to the latest store model but [[http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/2293 entirely fake restaurant]] in Southern California which is [[ProductPlacement offered to film and TV productions]] as well as used for almost all of their own commercials (worldwide). Chances are when you see a [=McDonalds=] on TV, it's that one.

The original San Bernardino restaurant has since been redesigned into a museum dedicated to the company. The oldest [=McDonald's=] [[LongRunners still in operation]] is the 4th location in Downey, California, which sports an image of Speedee the Hamburger-Head Mascot and a sign proudly proclaiming that the chain has sold ''500 million'' hamburgers[[note]]It survived intact for so long because the original owner's franchise agreement was with the [=McDonald=] brothers, prior to Kroc's takeover and the addition of a mandatory modernization clause to the franchise agreement[[/note]]. By the 1970s, the company buildings began including dining rooms and drive-through windows, coinciding with the addition of the now-trademark Mansard roof. In 2008, a new "modern" store design was unveiled, dubbed "Forever Young" (or [[FanNickname "Giant Eyebrow of Doom"]]).

* NotHelpingYourCase: In response to "[=McJob=]" being added to [[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/McJob Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary]], then-CEO Jim Cantalupo tried to claim that UsefulNotes/McDonalds is a better career choice than most people assume by claiming that over 1,000 franchise owners had started out in the kitchen. Except that [=McDonald's=] and its franchises had over 400,000 total employees at the time, so the math doesn't exactly work out in their favor.

%% * ScrewedByTheMerchandise: A famous case, where, arguably, Happy Meal toys became the downfall of the original ''Film/BatmanFilmSeries''. The second film in the series, ''Film/BatmanReturns'' was full of [[DarkerAndEdgier horrific and sexual content]], which caused an outcry from parents, and the action figures didn't sell. So Creator/WarnerBros kicked out Creator/TimBurton and brought in Creator/JoelSchumacher to make the next film ''Film/BatmanForever'' LighterAndSofter with more colorful characters and vehicles which could be translated into more action figures, a strategy which largely succeeded. Unfortunately, there's an argument this contributed to why the next film [[BoxOfficeBomb bombed at the box office]]. Those who worked on ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' said that it was the first time they learned of the word "toyetic", which contributed to decisions like making the batmobile have only a single seat because that was easier to replicate as a toy.

* ScrewedByTheMerchandise: A famous case, where, arguably, Happy Meal toys became the downfall of the original ''Film/BatmanFilmSeries''. The second film in the series, ''Film/BatmanReturns'' was full of [[DarkerAndEdgier horrific and sexual content]], which caused an outcry from parents, and the action figures didn't sell. So Creator/WarnerBros kicked out Creator/TimBurton and brought in Creator/JoelSchumacher to make the next film ''Film/BatmanForever'' LighterAndSofter with more colorful characters and vehicles which could be translated into more action figures, a strategy which largely succeeded. Unfortunately, there's an argument this contributed to why the next film [[BoxOfficeBomb bombed at the box office]]. Those who worked on ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' said that it was the first time they learned of the word "toyetic", which contributed to decisions like making the batmobile have only a single seat because that was easier to replicate as a toy.