The Hula Burger
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| Believe it or shove it. |
McDonald's founder, Ray Kroc, was a brilliant businessman -- when he kept out of the kitchen. After buying the business's rights from the McDonald brothers, he expanded into new geographic markets but soon discovered a problem with the sales in regions with large Catholic populations.
According to church canon, Catholics over the age of 14 are required to abstain from meat on Fridays. Kroc had high hopes for his non-meat option called "The Hula Burger" -- grilled pineapple with cheese on a bun. He positioned his burger to compete against the Filet-o-Fish sandwich, which was invented by a Catholic franchisee. The Filet-o-Fish won hands down while the Hula tanked.
Since then, American Catholics have relaxed their traditional Friday custom. It's still popular to abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent, however, and McDonald's typically discounts the Filet-o-Fish sandwich during that time to boost sales.
Although Kroc managed to stop his Hula Burger short and avoided reaching national embarrassment, the company wasn't so lucky with these next flops.
Further McHorror.
Tip o' le chapeau.
Pineapple with cheese and bread? I just threw up a little. OK, maybe food IS disgusting.
ReplyDeleteThe secret to Mickey Ds (and the rest of the fast/prepared food in the Amurkin diet)?
ReplyDeleteSALT.
One Egg McMuffin = 840 mg, 35% of daily value.
/ h8erade
Grilled pineapple would be pretty good. Fake cheese and spongy bun? Not so much.
ReplyDeleteBood-Flogging Ed.:
ReplyDeleteStill can't believe anyone would think this would have gone over anywhere in these United Snakes but (maybe) Hawai'i.