This winds me up each year. They promote 5 new burgers in 5 weeks, yet from what I can see, 4 of the 5 are just cheese and bacon burgers with the only slight differences being the bun and the sauces and maybe a slightly different cheese.

I'd kind of hope for a bit more variety myself.

I thought McDonalds were American anyway so anything they made would be a taste of America, no matter when you bought it.

Hmm. I think MccyD marketing have clocked to teh fact that actually, their customers are looking for the opposite of variety usually, so prolly realise that its best to stick to minor changes to shift burgers. Want exciting new tastes? Go elsewhere.

Well I suppose you are right to an extent, but I still find this promo baffling. I just don't see any association between the burgers and the cities they claim to represent.

For example, as I said above 4 of the 5 burgers have cheese and bacon. which is commonplace and don't really relate to any region in particular.

The first week is the Miami Melt, which has a chilli and chive bun. How does that relate to Miami specifically - it doesn't in my opinion.

The one burger that doesn't have bacon is the Texas Grande - here is the description.


How is Pepperoni Tex Mex? To me pepperoni is usually associated with Pizza - Texas is usually associated with Tex Mex, BBQ or Steak where if anything Chicago is known for Deep Dish Pizza and New York is also known for it's thin crust Pizzas.

Yet the Chicago burger is again the generic Cheese and Bacon with a cheese topped bun and salsa - what does that have to do with Chicago?

I can just about buy the New Orleans as it has a Cajun sauce, but the others don't seem to have anything specific to the region.

I also think MacD's are not expecting their core customer base to think too carefully about this.

It gives you wind.

Yep.

"Is there meat, cheese and a sauce in there?"
"Yes"
"I'll have it!".

Maybe not. I appreciate my essay length post suggests I am overthinking, but in reality I'm not. It is just something that quickly crosses my mind each time they do this. It just takes longer to spell it out in the written word!

Texans eat pepperoni pizza too.
They certainly did when I spent time working there.
In fact, they ate an awful lot of food!

Pepperoni is Italian-American so McDonalds seem a bit confused there.

Pretty likely, but when they seemingly make a fuss about 5 different tastes in 5 weeks and then essentially it's the same burger in different style buns with a different sauce, you do wonder why they don't just have one generic USA burger for the full 5 weeks.

Like I say, if you do spend the time analysing the burgers -and I appreciate the point that most people won't waste their time doing so - there is very little correlation between the cities and the items that are supposed to make them unique to that region.

Yeah but British people eat Pepperoni Pizza but you wouldn't bring out a British Burger and put pepperoni on it would you?

But by that logic, I eat Pepperoni Pizza while living in the Home Counties of England. Doesn't mean there would be any value in me creating the McHemel Hempstead burger featuring pepperoni though.

Obviously most foods are found and eaten in a variety of regions but the main association with Pepperoni is with Pizza and of the regions covered in this promo, Chicago and New York would be far closer linked with Pizza/Italian than Texas which as I say is usually linked with BBQ, Steaks and TexMex.

I'm sorry... really?

Since when has anybody expected McDonalds to be a reflection of any cuisine?!

It is what it is, cheap fast burgers. Obviously they have to mix it up every so often...

... but for goodness sake

Thanks for starting this thread OP. It's my laugh for the day.

I appreciate I have gone a bit further than I intended and I do take on board it's just Mcdonalds, so why care.

But equally, why go to the trouble of regionalising the burgers and then having no obvious association.

Like I say, why not just choose one of them, called it something more generic to the USA and just run that for 5 weeks, instead of running 5 different (yet not different enough) burgers for a week each?

No-one is saying they should be a reflection of cuisine, just questioning their advertising and use of ingredients. You must be fairly easily amused.

It's called marketing. And marketing has one objective. Get you into the source to buy the product or service. Sadly, it isn't often related to truth.

Questioning McDonald's use of ingredients?

Your taste buds are easily pleased

Yet those who are trivialising my (over) analysis are suggesting that the average McD's customer is too dense to care, as long as it has meat, cheese and a sauce.

It's a valid question, they are advertising a Tex Mex burger that has Italian ingredients.

Why not, it sounds good to me.

What do you think should be in a Welsh burger?
It's not lamb, but I'd have chicken curry, rice and chips in it.

They eat steak in Italy too. Bistecca.
I had a fabulous steak dish in my local Italian. It was beat out, filled with cheese, herbs and garlic, then rolled up. Lovely.

Yes but calling it a Tex Mex burger is ridiculous. People in Wales may eat chicken curry, rice and chips but that is not associated with Wales.

I do hope you didn't think I was trivialising your analysis of this - its the sort of thing that irks me too - except, I don't eat at McD. The point is, it IS just a marketing trick, McD care no more about introducing you the regional cuisines of Northern America than they do about the state of your arteries. You must know, every now and then, they need something new to put into the window. And they know, as do you and I that the average McD customer, is going to eat (and hopefully enjoy) one of these things and never think about it again.
Fair exchange = no robbery imo

I totally get what you are saying. It just seems bizarre to make a specific point of choosing 5 regions and then not really going that one step further to make it, even to a small extent, relevant. As I've said a couple of times already, they may as well just have one new burger for a 5 week promo since all are much of a muchness and the names don't really mean anything.

It wouldn't take much imagination surely. Even though I get the point you make (that most will just see it for what it is and eat one and forget about it) surely they could do better than this.