McDonald’s New Zealand Cans ‘Name-A-Burger’ Promo

McDonald’s New Zealand learnt the hard way that you shouldn’t let the general public ‘name’ a product.

The New Zealand version of Create Your Taste” campaign had a special promotion: Design your own burger and get free fries and a soft drink for your trouble.

It started off innocently enough, with people uploading their #makeburgerhistory options to social media:

@mcdonalds FRYDAY #makeburgerhistory

A photo posted by Wayne Quedley (@uujq) on Jun 30, 2016 at 9:38pm PDT

Created this beast today…the Hawaiian Hula. It was delicious but mega expensive…like $16 just for the burger. Not quite the picture but tasted mighty fine. @mcdonaldsnz #createyourtaste #createyourtastenz #makeburgerhistory #mcdonalds #maccasnz #nz #burger

A photo posted by @jodespics on Jun 30, 2016 at 11:15pm PDT

Amber from the office just made burger history by creating her own ‘Amburglar’ Create Your Taste burger – using the personalised QR code her burger will be automatically made when scanned at a McDonald’s kiosk. Create your own personalised burger at makeburgerhistory.co.nz or using the link in our bio ? #createyourtastenz #makeburgerhistory #mcdonalds #burger

A photo posted by Mango Communications NZ (@thisismangonz) on Feb 23, 2016 at 1:54pm PST

However the competition quickly divulged into as many racist burger names as it possibly could.  The website was quickly shut down, but not before NeoGaf forums were able to upload screenshots which aren’t racist:

Earlier this year, Google wanted the internet to name it’s latest android version with an “N” word. 

“Please don’t call it Namey McNameface,” Dave Burke, Google’s vice president of engineering, told the Google’s annual IO conference. Which should have been an indication that it wasn’t going to end well.