Reddit reveals McDonald’s hyper-caloric ‘secret’ menu

A McGangBang is just about as terrifying as it sounds — only perhaps not for the reasons you might assume.

During a Reddit AMA session over the weekend, a person identifying themselves as a McDonald’s manager said workers at the burger chain maintain a “secret menu” — one that insures heartburns for everyone. The revelation came from a user named “orchidhibiscus,” saying “just like with any of our sandwiches, you can add, remove or change ingredients by special request.”

The user, who claims to manage a restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland, said that the menu isn’t official, but is a “random persons guide to burgers you could potentially ‘hack’ at McDonald’s.”

Of course, Burger King makes its customizable menu central to its brand identity with its “Have it Your Way” slogan. The McDonald’s unauthorized menu more closely resembles Chipotle’s, where employees are told they can make dishes not on the menu. Beloved West Coast chain In-N-Out also has a “secret” menu, which is proudly displayed on their website, meaning it’s not really a secret.

The story quickly ballooned into a viral sensation with everyone from local television stations picking it up to New York Daily News, Us Weekly and the Daily Mail. A search on Topsy shows that the words “McDonald’s secret menu” turned up 4,000 tweets within the past week.

McDonald’s chatty Twitter account hasn’t acknowledged the existence of the secret menu. A company spokesperson told Digiday that an official secret menu doesn’t exist, but acknowledges that “customers are really creative” when it comes to customizing their menu. Indeed!

The not-so-secret menu is a caloric cacophony of meats, cheese and carbs. Since the discovery, people have been tweeting pictures of their hacked sandwiches, so let’s see if what they look like:

The Land, Sea and Air Burger is a combination of a fish, a hamburger and a patty, which costs around $6.

Then there’s the McGangBang, a McChicken squeezed inside a McDouble, for a budget-conscious price of $2.

The Mc10:35 is exclusive since it’s only available for a limited time during the day (guess when!) when the restaurant is changing from breakfast to lunch. It’s a double cheeseburger, with a sausage egg McMuffin and a bacon egg McMuffin.

Lastly, the MonsterMac is a Big Mac with six patties on it instead of two.

https://digiday.com/?p=127052

More in Marketing

Why Georgia-Pacific consolidated most retail media spending with seven networks after testing over 25 options

Figuring out which retail media network is worth spending on given the glut of new retail media networks can be a challenge for marketers.

Why the creator industry is setting its sights on on the small screen

As the creator economy continues to boom, creators are making their way off of mobile screens and onto the small screen.

Inside marketing’s elusive Quixote quest for digital ad transparency

Stuck in a spin cycle, marketers are grappling with the endless challenge of making tangible progress on ad transparency.