McSpam And Oreos

Oreo Spam Burger
McDonald's China (2020)
Every so often, a fast food or consumer packaged goods producer comes up with an idea that's so out of left field that it inspires a reaction all over the world.  That, of course, is the point.  Any publicity that isn't the result of a "problematic" incident is good publicity.  It puts your brand in the mind of the consumer and makes it more likely that you will purchase their product than if you hadn't been inspired to think of them.

Case in point: the McDonald's Spam and Oreo burger that was made available in China on December 21st.  I love fast food, I love Oreo cookies, and I'm Hawaiian, so my body is at least 7% Spam at any given time, but I wasn't thinking about any of these three brands, nor was I planning to write anything about them, but here I am... and I'm not alone.  This burger has been written about by The New York Post, Fox News, Kotaku, and dozens more.  In fact, if you do a Google search for McDonalds Spam Oreo right now, you're going to get pages of results, from major media conglomerates to little blogs with no audience like this one.

I didn't read through everything ever written about this burger.  In fact, I'm not even sure what it's called on the menu.  The only thing that can say with any degree of certainty is that it's made from two slices of grilled Spam and topped with Oreo cookie crumbles on a sesame seed bun.  It also appears to have some sort of white creamy condiment.  Is that mayonnaise?  Horseradish?  Oreo cookie cream filling?  It's a mystery for now... at least to me.

Here's the part that I wonder about when I see a product like this become available.  McDonald's isn't just some small neighborhood diner that thought up something wacky to get some publicity from the local newspaper.  They're McDonald's.  If you were going to make a Mount Rushmore of companies that are true masters of the art of marketing their brand over the long haul, Ronald McDonald's face has got to be in the George Washington spot.  They don't just come up with spur-of-the-moment combinations of weird things at the grocery store and immediately put it on the menu.  They come up with at least a dozen ideas which get produced, taste tasted and analyzed by focus groups.  Then out of all of the different things they've come up with, one of them stands out from the pack and they tweak the recipe until they have it just right.

It kind of makes you wonder what all of those other ideas were that didn't make the final cut, doesn't it?