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“Rick and Morty” Fans Will Now Finally, Finally Taste the Szechuan Sauce

McDonald’s has ordered 20 million cups of the sauce featured in an episode of “Rick and Morty,” thus closing a painful chapter from the brand’s recent past.

“Rick and Morty” Fans Will Now Finally, Finally Taste the Szechuan Sauce

[Image: courtesy of TBS/Adult Swim]

BY Joe Berkowitz1 minute read

It was supposed to be so simple. Instead, it was a brand disaster.  Late last summer, McDonald’s attempted to connect with the youth market by resurrecting a long-gone sauce recently referenced on Rick and Morty, a TV show college students are practically mandated to watch. The only problem was that McDonald’s somehow underestimated the show’s explosive popularity. When the brand re-upped on the Szechuan Sauce it rolled out originally as a tie-in for 1998’s Mulan, they did not order nearly enough, creating a scarcity. Videos kept cropping up online showing obnoxious teenagers mobbing McDonald’s. The creators of the show distanced themselves from the whole enterprise, as it suddenly became fashionable to trash not only Rick and Morty’s fanbase, but also the show itself.

Now, McDonald’s is hoping to make amends.

The brand has ordered 20 million packets of Szechuan Sauce, which will be available at restaurants nationwide on Monday, February 26. Additionally, McDonald’s has partnered with Gizmodo and The Onion to produce a series of podcasts documenting what happened with the first attempt to bring the sauce to the people. No word yet on whether the podcast will be delivered to area teens by a skateboarding dog wearing sunglasses, further proving that McDonald’s is down with the kids.

https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/966682596640985088

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At least Rick and Morty fans will finally get to try the sauce that served as a plot point for exactly one episode–and find out what high fructose corn syrup tastes like.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joe Berkowitz is an opinion columnist at Fast Company. His latest book, American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World, is available from Harper Perennial. More


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