McDonald’s has been finding out that social media is a bitch when you’re big, popular and imperfect. The chain has become famous for its broken ice cream machines and a site called McBroken.com is reporting where they are in real time. According to McBroken’s data, on one day nearly 15% of McDonald’s ice cream machines were down across the country, with the highest outage times occurring between 11 am and 3 pm – in other words, during the lunch rush.
Now Wendy’s is capitalising on McDonald’s no-McFlurry notoriety. Wendy’s has partnered with McBroken and is adding its own logo to the locations identifying broken McFlurry machines, with an ad at the top of the website promoting its Wendy’s Frosty US$1 special.
To make sure that McDonald’s customers’ pain and its own cheeky solution are noticed, Wendy’s is also parking its truck outside McDonald’s locations not selling McFlurries.
And it has taken to YouTube to spread the word far and wide:
