There’s no denying McDonald’s Japan has had rough time these past few years, with incidents like the spoiled meat scandal contributing to declining sales. To complicate matters further, some of the fast food chain’s campaigns and initiatives, like the sudden removal of menus from its counters (which have since been reinstated), have been met with confusion if not outright anger from Japanese customers. Now, it seems McDonald’s has captured the Japanese Internet’s attention again with what could well be their strangest campaign ever.
McDonald’s Japan will be releasing a new line of “affordably priced” burgers on October 25. And while that’s all fine and well, it’s their special one-day promotion in which they’ll be giving away these new burgers for free that has been raising eyebrows due to its bizarre catch.
There are three burgers in the new “Otegoro Mac” (“affordable McDonald’s”) line of menu items, each priced at 200 yen or 500 yen when purchased as a set that comes with a drink and your choice of fries, chicken McNuggets, salad or sweetcorn.
The Egg Cheeseburger comes with a jiggly cooked egg and melted cheddar cheese on top of a 100% beef hamburger patty. Next is the Barbecue Pork Burger, made with a smoky pork hamburger patty and crispy lettuce flavored with a rich barbecue sauce. Finally, there’s the Ham Lettuce Burger, consisting of ham, lettuce. tomato and cheese, flavored with a mild mustard sauce.
As far as we can tell from the promotional images, the burgers look fairly normal, if a little on the light side — especially the Ham Lettuce Burger which looks borderline sad. But where things start getting a bit silly is the nicknames the burgers have been given.
Yes, in true Japanese style each of the affordable offerings has been given a shortened version of its name as part of the promotional campaign: the Egg Cheese Burger is to be officially known as Eguchi, the Barbecue Pork Burger shall be Babepo, and Hamutasu is, of course, the new name for the Ham Lettuce Burger.
But that’s not all. From 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. on October 25 — the day before the official release of the new products — McDonald’s will be giving away a free burger to anyone with the same name as any one of the three nicknames.
But wait… how likely is that? Sure, Eguchi is a fairly common Japanese name, but do the names Babepo or Hamutasu exist in the world, much less in Japan?
Somewhat mercifully, McDonald’s will be providing any one of the three new burgers free of charge to customers not only with the exact same name as the burgers’ nicknames but with a longer name that contains one of the nicknames (like Seguchi, or, um, Suzubabepo…), and also to a maximum of three accompanying guests as well. The offer also applies to names registered with social media, but you will be asked to show appropriate identification.
Japanese Internet users seem to think that the use of the nicknames borders on the ridiculous, as two of the three names likely don’t exist in Japan, and we kind of have to agree that including the bogus names does make it hard to take the campaign seriously.
Still, at least the Eguchi-sans of Japan will be getting a free burger—not to mention suddenly finding themselves extremely popular on October 25 with people wanting to accompany them to McDonald’s for lunch.
Source: McDonald’s Japan
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- New MOS Burgers are 100% Beef, Still 0% Moss -- McDonald’s to Sell McGriddles All Day Long, It’s about Time -- McDonald’s New Korean Barbecue Burger Isn’t Bad, But It’s No Big America
© Japan Today
27 Comments
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Nessie
Just bring in the breakfast all day promotion.
toshiko
Creative marletting idea
avigator
Yes, if you have one of the Taro names. Momotaro, Kintaro, Gintaro,
Aly Rustom
What foreign names get you a free burger?
warispeace
If they can give away free burgers, that should be a sign to consumers that the company does not believe in the quality of its food and that the cost of ingredients has close to 0 value, which indicates those working in the production chain are paid very little and most of the social and environmental costs are externalized and paid by someone other than McD.
Amanda Harlow
Free burgers for all Mac.....Scottish joy!
toshiko
@Aly RustomOCT. 21, 2015 - 09:18AM JST What foreign names get you a free burger?
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Anyone with the name with Mc? And Donald such as Donald Trump?
It should include All you can ear abbrevuation, ALY to let you eat free.
m6bob
MOS Burger for me anytime.
Christopher Smith
Free burgers would not entice me to McDonald's. Mos Burger not much better.
Jimizo
'Free burgers for all Mac.....Scottish joy!'
Isn't McDonald's a bit too healthy for the Scots? ;)
Aly Rustom
Toshiko, what's your point?
Meiyouwenti
McDonald's? Are they still in business?
Citizen2012
Sounds like APP market now, burger will be free and they will charge you inapp, like drink and side menus....lol
Peter Shaw
free food? still wouldn't catch me dead in a mcd's. mos all the way.
commanteer
This made me think of the Toyota executive who was booted out of Japan for smuggling drugs. Why? Because this campaign is just so bizarre and nonsensical that the only explanation can be rampant drug use among the top executives. Otherwise, hard to believe they could all lose their sanity at the same time. (Maybe they should test the tap water at McDonald's headquarters though.)
jerseyboy
Sad that a brand as iconic as McDonald's now has to resort to such foolishness because their basic proposition has lost its footing in the market. McDonald's was once synonymous with family-oriented value. Now it is just silly.
Aly Rustom
Its like syphillis. You can supress it a bit but never really kill it
Wc626
Those tiny things? MOS Burger is a joke. Japanese never really understood great tasting burgers. Thank god for The Shake Shack making its debut in Tokyo, from the US.
crustpunker
It has always confused how many other countries can make incredidly good sushi. Innovative or traditional but generally speaking, Japan is generally quite poor at making servicable burgers. Can't think of a time where I had been impressed EXCEPT with a bacon mushroom swiss burger at a hard rock cafe somewhere here.... That kinda doesn't really count though....
lostrune2
Reminds us when Coca Cola brought back putting people's names on the bottles:
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/coca-cola-unbottled/is-your-name-on-a-coke-bottle-find-out-here/
Hahahaha, back in univ, our local McD's once had a promotion: 29 cents hamburgers on Tuesdays, 39 cents cheeseburgers on Wednesdays, limit 10 per order. So each of both days, me and my buds would hop in our car to the drive-thru, and we each would order 10. We did it so many times, we'd bring the exact change including tax for either day. We still remember how much. lol
Commodore Shmidlap (Retired)
Must be trying to cull Eguchis.
toshiko
@Aly: Your question is worth more than Mc doing in Japan. Too many competition in USA that it may need to think about your question, Then you should be compensated.
shonanbb
I would rather select a coupon out of a secret box and see if I am lucky or not.
What about eye color?
Aly Rustom
Toshiko, Mc USA is not doing this campaign. Only Mc Japan is. So are there any foreign names along with Japanese names that get you a free burger? For example Eggbert?
5SpeedRacer5
My name is Ronald McDonald. Give me one of everything.
Nessie
I'm the Dalai Lama. Make me one with everything.
kurisupisu
So good that they have to give away their food - now that is sad!