In the name of user engagement, McDonald’s New Zealand had a brilliant idea: “Build your own unique burger and the sides are on us,” read the invitation on a web page encouraging customers to design a burger and then order it from a kiosk at a participating McDonald’s.
What could go wrong?
Welcome to the internet. The site was populated by a parade of lewd and racist burgers. The site was launched in February 2016, though the sensitive content appears to have take over only recently, leading McDonald’s to close it down (this is a cached version of the site) last night (July 20), but not before the fail had been duly noted, and documented.
Some of the burger creations were funny, others were funny if off-color, but many were downright offensive. Here’s a sampling:
Tristan Cooper, a writer for Dorkly who was able to visit the site before it shut down, described the web page as “a non-stop parade of the world’s most racist sandwiches.” McDonald’s New Zealand was not immediately available to comment.