Top 10 Failed Products in Fast Food
Just like my last list, we'll be exploring failed products, but instead of drinks from the Coca Cola Company, we will do failed food products. Not every food can have the success of a Whopper or a Big Mac. But these items failed in more ways than one. Hi, I'm Pnut, and today I'll be telling you the Top 10 Failed Products in Fast Food.
At the time when this was getting ready to release, pizza chains were growing very fast. So McDonald's decided to step in too, by releasing their own type of pizza in the early 90s. They implemented this new item in portions of Canada and the US.
There were many problems with this, such as trying to find a new oven for every single restaurant, and issues with the drive-thru since the box that the pizza came in didn't fit. It was discontinued in 2000. Surprised it went on for that long.
Wow, I didn't realize how many flops McDonald's has had over the years. In the 70s, McDonald's tried a brand new item on their menu and created McDonald's Spaghetti. It was long spaghetti noodles covered in marinara sauce. It was also topped with shredded cheese and served in a cardboard container.
It was launched in the US, and many people almost immediately didn't care or hated this item. It was taken off the menu very quickly.
These are very popular in the Philippines, somehow.
To me, Burger King fries are delicious. Some of the best fries I've tasted in fast food. But in 2013, they decided to go the healthy route and released Satisfries. These fries were made with a type of batter that would absorb less frying oil.
They wouldn't contain as much fat as their regular fries, but they weren't really considered "healthy," since they contained only 70 calories and 4 grams less fat than regular fries. People even started to call these "saddest fries." It's no surprise that within a year, Burger King started to discontinue them. Good riddance. Leave me and my Burger King fries in peace.
Who doesn't know Pizza Hut? It's well known around America and possibly the whole world for making tasty, greasy pizza, even though I don't like pizza. In 2014, when sales for Pizza Hut were declining, they decided to rebrand their pizza for foodie millennials by updating their menu with new artisan options. These included honey sriracha sauce and Peruvian cherry peppers.
People did not like this change, and even the CEOs of Pizza Hut admitted it was bad. By the end of that year, they decided to revert to their original menu.
Why was 2007 such a weird year around the world? The iPhone was first released, but it also had that one weird dessert menu from Domino's called the Oreo Dessert Pizza. For $3.99, you could get this pizza-sized cookie that could be served as an addition to any purchase.
It consisted of a chocolate chip cookie with Oreos and vanilla syrup. While it sounded tasty, many people didn't like it for being too chewy and too sweet. It was unappealing to many people overall, and it didn't last long on the menu.
In 2013, this shipwreck of a meal was added to the menu of Long John Silver's, a popular restaurant in the US. It contained a 7.5-ounce piece of haddock with a pile of onion rings and a side of hush puppies. Long John said it was the biggest fish they had ever served and it could be a contender for big meals in restaurants.
It only lasted from May to August of that year because of backlash over its unhealthy amount of calories and fat.
Alright, I know it's like nine months until Halloween, but screw it, this is quite interesting. In 2015, Burger King decided to embrace Halloween and released a new limited-time offer on their menu, the Halloween Whopper. It was basically the same thing as a Whopper, but instead of tan buns, they were black. It was also infused with A1 steak sauce.
It was so weird that it turned people's feces green. Neon green. Ugh, is this what my research has come to?
Looks like that one from SpongeBob.
I didn't even know this existed at all. In the 80s and 90s, Wendy's decided to give their new concoction a go, called the Superbar. It was a big self-serve buffet that included salads, fruit, Mexican food, and pasta.
There were many things going on with this bar. You could make your own taco, the pasta had two types with sauce options, and garlic that was made from hamburger buns. The biggest problems were that they couldn't keep up with the people, and it didn't really make a profit. The Superbar was officially over in 1998.
What's the purpose of separating the hot and cool food items in Styrofoam packaging? It's unnecessary and environmentally unfriendly.
Dairy Queen tried to appeal to healthier food choices with their newest item, Breeze. In 1990, Dairy Queen launched Breeze, which was pretty much the same thing as a Blizzard but had frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. Surprisingly, it lasted for a decade before Dairy Queen decided to finally end it all.
The main issue with this failure was that it didn't really sell well since the yogurt would sometimes go bad before it could be sold.
The Mighty Wings were basically normal McNuggets, except they had bones in them. They were taken off the menu shortly after their release for being too overpriced ($1 per wing) and way too spicy.
There was nothing mighty about these wings.
The McAfrika was released in Norway when a major famine was occurring in some African countries. How insensitive do you have to be?
During the late 80s and early 90s, my favorite pizza chain from Southern California, Straw Hat Pizza, offered sourdough crust. I thought it was delicious! Today, Straw Hat still exists but the sourdough crust doesn't. They stopped offering it during the 90s.
During the 80s, the popular restaurant Taco Bell decided to try a new healthy item for their menu. Trust me, you'll be seeing a lot of failed items that tried to make people healthy. The Seafood Salad was made to compete with the popular Filet-O-Fish from McDonald's.
It was basically a normal salad but topped with shrimp, white fish, and snow crab. This idea was quickly pulled since I'm pretty sure people wouldn't want to have seafood at Taco Bell.
Still shows up seasonally at Arby's. Venison is tasty but naturally has almost zero fat, so it can be very dry and tough. Arby's does not seem to realize this.