The McRib Is McBack For a Limited McTime, Once McMore

Once again, McDonald’s is offering the McRib for “a limited time only.”

Though I was raised by the type of “crunchy” parents who made granola from scratch, I’ll never be too good for McDonalds. One of the best meals I had this year was a piping hot, salty McDonald’s fries and a McDouble, which I ate in my car on the way to a wedding in Cape Cod. Though I was 45 minutes away from an all-claw lobster roll at an oceanfront picnic table, I saw the yellow arches from the highway and something inside me switched on that I think only the children of kale and tofu loving ex-hippies can understand: an uncontrollable desire to eat the forbidden fruit—the barely digestible, greasy, Styrofoamy products of America’s most famous burger joint, Micky D’s.

Based on McDonald’s handling of their world famous pork sandwich, the McRib, there’s something about this scarcity mentality that the fast food chain’s marketing team understands. The McRib, made from ground pork reshaped to look like a Chihuahua-size rack of ribs, has a cult following, which McDonalds has manipulated like used car salesmen over three decades with “limited-time offers” and “get ‘em while they last” marketing ploys.

And they’re back. The McRib—usually sold at only select sites—will be sold at every U.S. location through November 14th this year. It’s the same “buy it now” tactic Starbucks uses with their seasonal lattes, except less predictable. McDonald’s reintroduced the McRib in 1994 after an almost decade long remission, and again in ’05, ’07, and ’10.

But the weird thing about the boneless porkwitch is that unlike the seasonal drinks at Starbucks, McDonalds supposedly doesn’t exactly make a killing from them. According to Wikipedia, in 2005, the company had to bend over backwards to create the appearance of a cult following.

On November 1, 2005, McDonald’s put out a press release; the McRib would be permanently removed from the menu following a ‘McRib Farewell Tour.’ Mcrib.com, a site registered to McDonald’s, featured a petition to ‘Save the McRib,’ which was facetiously sponsored by the ‘Boneless Pig Farmers Association of America.’ In a two-angled campaign, McDonald’s was simultaneously conducting a McRib farewell tour and sponsoring a petition to “Save the McRib” to create hysteria. On October 16, 2006, the ‘McRib Farewell Tour II’ site appeared, confirming the campaign was a marketing ploy.

I wanted to try the McRib last year, but didn’t get to a McDonalds before it was swept away to sandwich heaven for the sixth time. Though the McRib looks nasty, I’m intrigued by its mysterious shape and shameless sloppiness—just like with everything else on the menu. But if I don’t get to it this year, I won’t be disappointed. For something made out of gummy-looking ground pork, that thing is never gonna die.