The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2024
McDonald's UK relaunches the McRib with a fake 'accidental' push — 500k sold day one
A 'mistaken' test push to BBQ-sauce superfans leaked the McRib's return — #1 on X, £350m earned media, 500k sold on opening day.
McDonald's
What it had to solve
The McRib had been off the menu for ten years and needed a return that felt like an event, not a menu announcement. The relaunch had to reach the fans who cared most and make them part of the story.
How it works
McDonald's took the McRib off UK menus ten years ago, and the sandwich spent a decade as a cult memory its fans kept asking about. When the company finally decided to bring it back, the challenge was making the return feel like an event rather than another menu addition.
So the launch was built around one deliberately engineered mistake. McDonald's 'accidentally' sent a test notification about the McRib to its biggest fans — identified through their preference for BBQ sauce in the McDonald's app — the kind of people who would recognise the message instantly and share it.
The apparent leak turned the return into breaking news. The 'mistake' became the number one trending topic on X, earned media valued at £350 million and an 850% increase in conversation, and over 500,000 McRibs sold on opening day. The campaign is preserved in the D&AD Awards archive under Digital Marketing.
Why it lands
- A half-revealed test notification reads as real news rather than marketing, which makes it far more believable than an official announcement.
- First-party app data — the BBQ-sauce preference — found the fans whose excitement would do the spreading, so the leak reached exactly the right audience.
- Fans who discovered the news first became the story's protagonists, giving them a reason to post rather than just read.
- The 'mistake' framing is self-deprecating and deniable, so even people who were not McRib fans joined the joke.
What it did
The 'mistake' became the number one trending topic on X, generated £350 million in earned media and an 850% increase in conversation, and sold over 500,000 McRibs on opening day — the fastest-selling launch-day promotion the brand says it has run.
What you can take
An announcement is easy to ignore; a leak is irresistible. Aim a plausible 'mistake' at true fans found through first-party data, and the audience discovers and spreads the news for you.
Since then
The stunt's proof point became its own results: the campaign reported £350 million in earned media, an 850% lift in conversation, number one trending on X and over 500,000 McRibs sold on opening day — described as the fastest-selling launch-day promotion McDonald's has run. The work is preserved in the D&AD Awards archive under Digital Marketing, where McDonald's is credited as the brand, and it stands as a reference for turning a routine relaunch into a fan-led news event.
Sources
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