Though we may be lovin' their cheap food, there's a lot to be ahem, salt about when it comes to McDonald's. Just ask the folks who have figuratively — and literally — been burned by the fast food company.
From a more than quarter-century legal battle against a family restaurant to hiding children's injuries, here are 15 unsavory facts about McDonald's
1
No Beef
“McDonald’s stopped using beef tallow in their French fries after a wealthy heart attack survivor spent $3 million dollars on full page newspaper ads calling out the chain for their unhealthy menu.”
2
Try Sonic
“The British Hedgehog Preservation Society won a campaign in 2006 to force McDonalds to redesign their McFlurry cups due to hedgehogs repeatedly getting stuck in them and dying.”
3
Stock Dividends
“McDonald's spent $6 billion on share repurchases & stock dividends in a year (2011), or $14,286 per restaurant worker employed by the company. Yet food stamps & welfare benefits subsidize its labor force.”
4
Stolen McIdentity
“McDonald's waged a 26 year unsuccessful legal battle against a man named Ronald McDonald and his McDonald's Family Restaurant.”
5
More Pain, More Gain
“McDonald's was fined $4 million in 1999 for not reporting 400+ injuries of children using Big Mac Climber jungle gyms, where children climbed up a tube from the ground and played between two giant metal hamburger buns. The last Big Mac Climbers were removed from McDonald's playgrounds in 1997.”
6
McIcky
“The McDonald's Chicken McNugget in the UK is made using a different recipe than in the US. UK McNuggets don't contain either the petroleum based chemical preservative tertiary butylhydroquinone (tBHQ) or dimethylpolysiloxane (silicon) which was used in breast implants and silly putty.”
7
Scalding Justice
“In 1994, Stella Liebeck sued McDonald's after spilling hot coffee in her lap, leaving her with third degree burns. Liebeck initially sued for $20,000 to cover her medical and living expenses, but the jury ultimately awarded her $160,000 plus an extra $640,000 for punitive damages.”
8
Sad-lad
“A McDonald's Caesar Salad has more calories, fat and salt than a Double Big Mac burger.”
9
Racking it Up
“McDonald's 'McRib' sandwich contains over 70 different ingredients, including ‘pig bits like tripe, heart, and scalded stomach.’”
10
We’re Hatin’ It
“A 2017 McDonald's commercial was pulled after being slammed by numerous complaints as exploitative. The commercial featured a boy who is talking with his mom and trying to find something in common with his late father. At the end he finally finds something - they both liked the Filet-O-Fish.”
11
Making Broccoli Worse
“McDonald’s created a bubble gum flavored broccoli that was a big failure with kids.”
12
We’d Hit It
“In 2005, McDonald's had an ad campaign saying ‘I’d hit it’ about a double cheeseburger, not knowing the slang meant they wanted to have — with the cheeseburger.”
13
McLies
“Ronald McDonald isn’t allowed to tell children where the hamburgers really come from, ‘if they asked where the food came from [we were told to say] that the hamburgers grow in a patch with the French fries next to them.’”
14
Unhappy Meal
“The idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal originated in Guatemala. Created by manager Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño to simplify the menu for busy parents, it was later brought to the attention of the Chicago office who developed it further and deployed it in the U.S.”
15
Bourdain’s Stamp of Disapproval
“Anthony Bourdain once said that the most disgusting thing he had ever eaten was a Chicken McNugget.”
