McDonald’s Does the McRib for Christmas Because They ‘Don’t Really Do Polar Bears’

If the McDonald’s McRib was a movie, it’d be the Rocky Horror Picture Show: a cult classic inspiring weird hipsters to dress up at unpredictable intervals and go crazy at all hours of the night. Mostly. The main difference being, of course, is that you usually get some warning before Rocky Horror is scheduled to appear somewhere. The McRib, on the other hand, is famous for being hidden ’til it’s not. In fact, if you Google “McRib”, your first result will be a “McRib Locator“, complete with “latest sightings”.

And the reasoning behind its sporadic appearance on the McDonald’s menu? It’s a marketing ploy. That’s right, McDonald’s has been messing with us all along.

“We don’t really do polar bears,” Peter McGuinness, CEO of DDB Chicago, the company responsible for McDonald’s marketing, told Business Insider. So, instead of relying on red cups and snowmen with jaunty caps to inspire fresh business, they announce the McRib, as “a great piece of buzzy news that surprises and delights, late in the year on the marketing calendar.”

This year, the elusive ninja sandwich is scheduled to come out of hiding for about six weeks starting around December. Happy holidays indeed.

via The Consumerist/ photo courtesy of SlashFood