Can You Tell the Real McDonald’s Items From the Fakes?

Fast food giant McDonald’s is a business built on predictability. Its customers know it’s the place to go for burgers, fries, shakes, and—if the machine is working—a McFlurry. But McDonald’s still needs to pursue innovation to keep up in a competitive and dynamic industry. That can mean big wins (Chicken McNuggets) and big misses (bubble gum-flavored broccoli, which never got past the test kitchen).

See if you can spot which of these lesser-known McDonald’s products were real—and which we made up—in the quiz below.

McDonald’s can spend millions developing, testing, and marketing new menu items, only for consumers to reject them. In the late 1970s, the chain had high hopes for the Onion Nugget, a deep-fried onion side. (They actually predated Chicken McNuggets.) Customers didn’t bite. In the 1980s, the McD.L.T. was marketed on a gimmick of keeping cooler toppings (lettuce, tomato) from the warm burger patty. The two-sided Styrofoam packing was considered hugely wasteful, leading to a public relations crisis.

Adding to the menu can also be a logistical nightmare. When new items require different kinds of preparation—like steaming a tortilla for a wrap—it can slow down the chain’s highly efficient kitchen.

Despite these hassles, innovation can lead to breakthroughs. For every onion nugget, there's a McRib. The seasonal offering, which was introduced in 1981, remains one of the chain's biggest successes.

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