The Tiny McDonald's Spoon That Stirred Up Trouble In The 1970s
People can surprise you with how industrious they are sometimes, and that's not always a good thing. McDonald's learned this lesson the hard way back in the 1970s, thanks to the unintentional use of a tiny coffee spoon they provided that became associated with drug culture. The spoon came with every coffee and was meant for stirring. It was branded on the end of the handle with the golden arches, making it an unmistakable symbol of the company. The diminutive utensil, with its long neck and small bowl, was adopted by cocaine users as an ideal vessel for snorting the drug.
In 1979, Joe Biden, a senator at the time, held hearings in Baltimore on the Model Drug Paraphernalia Act, which had been proposed as a way to curb drug use and allowed for almost anything in the proximity of drugs to be considered paraphernalia. The Paraphernalia Trade Association, which wanted looser restrictions, came to fight. On the other side of things, Joyce Nalepka, President of Drug-Free Kids: America's Challenge, recounted how representatives of the drug paraphernalia industry testified at the hearing that a McDonald's coffee spoon was "the best cocaine spoon in town." They even demonstrated how to use it, according to Congressional transcripts.
Read more: 15 Failed Restaurant Chains We Actually Miss
As noted by TIME, McDonald's was not embarrassed that the spoons were being misused in this way. But after that Baltimore hearing, Nalepka called McDonald's then-President Ed Schmidt because she thought he should have been embarrassed. After 20 minutes, he agreed to redesign the spoons, she wrote on CNBC.
The company is no stranger to adapting to controversy. It dropped its Supersize menu in 2004 because "not many Supersize fries are sold," said spokesperson Walt Riker via CBS News. And while "Super Size Me" documentarian Morgan Spurlock confirmed the timing was just a coincidence after his film, according to the Guardian, it also came on the heels of a historic 2002 lawsuit by two teens accusing the chain of making them obese. The optics for Supersize and unhealthy menus were bad.
In the 1980s, McDonald's had to field environmental concerns due to its McD.L.T. burger, one of the menu items we definitely don't miss. Packaged in a double-sided Styrofoam package to separate the hot side from the cold side, the waste was basically double that of a normal burger. Bowing to pressure from environmentalist groups, the package and sandwich were eliminated by the early 1990s.
Given its concern with optics, it's not hard to see why the company wanted to distance itself from what drug users dubbed the "McSpoon" and put the whole controversy behind them. Besides, based on our review of its coffee, they don't want anything to draw more attention to it. Skip the coffee and try one of these much better breakfast items instead.
Read the original article on Tasting Table.
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