I am absolutely NOT the target audience for the McVeggie.
(My favourite meat topping is more meat.)
But I do know a few Vegans, and the ones I know are all fairly health conscious.
So when I read that McDonald's Canada would be testing a vegetable-based burger for a second time (the first time was in 2019 with the launch of the "PLT" -- Plant, Lettuce, Tomato -- which was as successful as you would think it would be with a name like that), my first thought was this:
"I wonder what the venn diagram of Vegans and 'People who visit McDonald's often' look like? Probably two separate circles."
I laughed at my own joke, then reminded myself not to be such a hypocrite.
After all, I was the guy that led the introduction of a "Better for You" menu to Pizza Hut Canada way back in 2009.
(You know, the place famous for its greasy pan pizzas and all-you-can-eat pizza buffets? Yeah, I introduced a Better-for-You menu to that place.)
Why on Earth did we do this?
Not because we suddenly wanted to become a healthy place to eat: that would be going against the brand (and why people loved it so much).
And not because we thought our Better for You options would ever be big sellers: our target was just 1% of the menu mix, and we were genuinely surprised when we exceeded that goal in just a few months after launch.
The reason we introduced "Better for You" at Pizza Hut (and the reason our franchisees bought into what was, at the time, a radical idea) was that when a healthy person and a person like me decided to go out for dinner, Pizza Hut was never a consideration... because at the time they had NOTHING on the menu that was even close to healthy.
Introducing healthier options meant that Pizza Hut was able to enter the consideration set. And, by and large, it worked.
I have to believe that's the real reason that McDonald's Canada is introducing the McVeggie...
... not to sell a lot of McVeggie burgers, but to ensure the vegan in the group doesn't veto McDonald's as an option whenever the group has to decide where they want to eat.
Because the alternative to believing that is to believe what was written in the article: "the dish's appeal is obvious as soon as one takes a bite out of the sandwich and spots the mélange of chunky greenery that forms the patty".
MELANGE OF CHUNKY GREENERY THAT FORMS THE PATTY?!?
Ugh... hard pass, thanks.
Please pass the bacon.
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