McDonald's Restaurants in Ontario Held a Secret Secret Menu Contest

It pays to work in fast food—at least if you live in Ontario, Canada and your employer is McDonald's. Today in Toronto, the company will hold the finals of the McDonald's Secret Secret Menu Challenge, a competition in which crew members and managers submitted recipes for sandwiches or wraps using existing McDonald's ingredients.

The submissions were narrowed down in quarterfinal, semifinal, and now final rounds. The winner will take home CAD$10,000 (or about $7400) and an additional CAD$500 for his/her restaurant, while the second place recipe will earn someone CAD$5000, and the bronze finisher will bank CAD$2500. There is also a CAD$1000 People's Choice Award that will go to the recipe with the most likes on the Secret Secret Menu Creations website.

Website screenshot, McDonald's Ontario

According to Adweek, the contest was developed by a Quebec City-based creative agency called Cossette and the Ontario Regional McDonald's marketing team. To tell employees about the challenge, Adweek reports that the agency hung posters with hidden messages in break rooms and employees were given submission forms with redacted text to keep with the top secret theme.

They also produced a funny YouTube video (above) that featured a fictional character named Don Ronaldson, the Non-Communications Director, who denied that the Secret Secret challenge existed while links to the contest page appeared on screen.