The new sandwiches will take the place of two of the Angus burgers–Deluxe and Bacon and Cheese–and will include a new option, Habanero Ranch. They’ll boast new buns and thicker slices of bacon than previous incarnations. The company made the decision after sales slumped for the more expensive fare in 2012.

“When you can get four or five burgers off the Dollar Menu, nobody’s going to buy the Angus burger,” consultant Richard Adams said. “The Dollar Menu has become a real problem for these chains.”

The new burgers have been tested in restaurants across the country for several months but won’t roll out nationally until next month.

“Once we created these burgers, we didn’t see the need for the Angus line,” Greg Watson, senior VP of menu innovations said.

Image: McDonald’s

The fast-food giant appears to be trying to keep a good selection as well as low prices, which may set them apart from their biggest competitors, including Wendy’s. They also announced they will be expanding their quarter-pounder line, including an option with bacon. It’s about time!

The company says the Angus burgers just didn’t stand a chance up against their lower-priced sandwiches or the dollar menu.

“When you can get four or five burgers off the Dollar Menu, nobody’s going to buy the Angus burger,” consultant Richard Adams said. “The Dollar Menu has become a real problem for these chains.”

Because of an intense drought last year, the price of beef rose substantially and restaurants had to compensate by offering up more chicken choices. Now, they say, they’re looking to give customers more options while keeping their food affordable in a rough economy.

David Whipple says he bought a burger with pickles, mustard, and ketchup from McDonald’s in July of 1999 to use as a visual aid for a presentation about enzymes and reactions. After letting it “age” for a month, he showed it to a group of students and was surprised even then at how little time had affected it.

“At the little meeting, I showed the hamburger and the pickle, which was just starting to disintegrate,” Whipple said. “There was no decomposition to the meat or bun, nor any mold, fungus or smell. It had no bad odor at all.”

After the presentation, Whipple says he stuffed the burger in a bag and ended up leaving it in his truck, forgotten, over the summer months. It eventually landed in a closet in his home, and when he discovered it he says he was amazed. Lately, it’s gotten some attention and was even featured on the show “TV Doctors”. A photo of the burger, along with its story, has since gone viral.

“This just came out in the last couple of months and it’s just been crazy,” he said.

The burger hasn’t been dehydrated or refrigerated, and Whipple says he can’t understand why it’s survived as long as it has. He is currently working on a similar experiment with burgers from different fast food chains, to see if they hold up as well as the one from McDonald’s So far, he says, they’re right on track. As for McDonald’s, they can’t offer up an explanation as to why one of their burgers would hang around this long, either.

“McDonald’s hamburger patties in the U.S. are made with 100% USDA-inspected beef. They are cooked and prepared with salt, pepper and nothing else — no preservatives — no fillers. Our hamburger buns are made from North American-grown wheat flour. These are the same foods that people buy every day in their local grocery stores,” they said in a statement.

It’s been a pretty bad day for whoever is in charge of fast-food chain Burger King’s Twitter account. Earlier this afternoon, the account was hacked and began suggesting that the company had been sold to McDonalds. The hackers even changed the logo and header photos to enrich the joke.

Four nearly a half an hour, the hackers maintained control of the account, sending out some nonsensical/obscene tweets, links to rap videos, and the like. As of right now, the account has been suspended.

Other tweets included “Try our new BK Bath Salt 99% Pure MDPV! Buy a Mig Mac, get a gram free!” and “We caught one of our employees in the bathroom doing this,” which linked to a picture of a guy shooting up.

Early on, online hacktivist group Anonymous took responsibility for the hack, called it #OpMadCow. The motivation behind the attack, if there actually was any besides #lulz, is currently unknown.

HAHAHAHA RT @burgerking: Everybody follow us! @youranonnews #OpMadCow

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) February 18, 2013

McDonald’s has issued a statement via Twitter, in which they say that they “empathize” with Burger King. McDonald’s, as you may know, is no stranger to having bad days on Twitter.

We empathize with our @burgerking counterparts. Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking.

— McDonald’s (@McDonalds) February 18, 2013

We’re not so sure about Taco Bell, however:

@verticityy No comment.

— TACO BELL (@TacoBell) February 18, 2013

According to the Associated Press, the fast food chain is pressing on with an expanded test of the offering, but has yet to confirm a full U.S. launch. The wings hit Chicago this week, reportedly, in three-piece, five-piece and ten-piece options.

As a longtime chicken wing fan, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around this offering not being a hot seller, warranting a wider release, but of course, it has to make financial sense for the company. Then, I suppose, there’s always the question of whether or not people really want their chicken wings from the restaurant more known for burgers and McNuggets.

Opinions vary:

Follow @PreciseParadise

Shani Nekole
@PreciseParadise

Might wings at McDonald’s #iApprove

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4 minutes ago via UberSocial for Android · powered by @socialditto

Follow @rayy4president

killa ray
@rayy4president

McDonald’s selling chicken wings now. #fail

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6 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

Follow @Mr_JNewson

Jordan
@Mr_JNewson

McDonald’s making wings now. Lmao

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12 minutes ago via Twitter for Android · powered by @socialditto

Follow @Rye_TheShyGuy

Ryean
@Rye_TheShyGuy

McDonald’s chicken wings….Stop It!!!!

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24 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @candycakes322

Candace NOT Candice
@candycakes322

Lmfao McDonald’s really got chicken wings I’m crying real tears do they come wit mild sauce or ketchup?

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46 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

Follow @goombatoons

mike carbonara
@goombatoons

McDonald’s is testing chicken wings for its menu, which will be the first time they serve something that remotely looks like chicken.

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50 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @Dame_Diva

Brown Suga Babe
@Dame_Diva

Chicken wings at McDonald’s? That shit don’t even sound right…I’ll stick to my Harold’s

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1 hour ago via Twitter for iPad · powered by @socialditto

Follow @Pocahontas_Itiz

☜Iam◆KIERRA
@Pocahontas_Itiz

Smh McDonald’s getting chicken wings wtf

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1 hour ago via Twitter for Android · powered by @socialditto

Follow @Kay_Nico

Kris
@Kay_Nico

I can’t believe McDonald’s is just now bringing chicken wings to the states, I had them when I was like 11 in St Croix

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2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @followmyjohnson

Mr. Slangthat
@followmyjohnson

Side note: McDonald’s is now serving wings y’all and they are fire

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13 hours ago via Tweetbot for iOS · powered by @socialditto

Follow @PreciseParadise

Shani Nekole
@PreciseParadise

I wanna try the wings from McDonald’s my mama keep talking about them..Are they good?

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16 hours ago via UberSocial for Android · powered by @socialditto

Image: Todd Brock (Serious Eats)

“I turned it and I see this piece of jewelry sticking out,” Frances Rosario said. “I’m like, ‘What the heck is this?’ My concern was that if something happened and she swallowed it.”

McDonald’s has yet to issue a statement on the incident, but they do have a “strict” policy on facial and ear piercings:

“Visible body piercing must be removed with the exception of one small earring in each ear and a small stud nose piecing,” [the Mcdonald's guidbook] explains. Large loop earrings or gauges can be dangerous and are not allowed. All jewelry must be in good taste and professional. The manager may request removal of jewelry they feel looks unprofessional.”

This is far from the first time a nasty extra has been found in fast food; earlier this year a boy found a finger hidden inside his roast beef sandwich from Arby’s.

While many think the half-mast part came in due to the election results, flying a flag upside-down is a distress signal, and many in town are puzzled as to why the fast-food chain would allow such a thing to happen.

“I think that’s a stab at us,” said Lou Headman, a local vet, who said the display was disrespectful “It doesn’t make sense why anyone would want to do that. That’s a distress signal, and maybe they didn’t know that, but we know that.”

However, a manager at the restaurant posted to a local news station’s Facebook page, saying that they’d flown the flag at half-mast per corporate request; the owner, Karen Mezan, issued a statement about the incident.

“Unfortunately, a flag cable broke and during the process of trying the fix the flag, it was inadvertently turned upside down. It wasn’t noticed that the flag was upside down until a customer inquired about it. We are working on fixing the flag right now. It’s important to note that this was an accident, not intentional.”

The flagpole has since been fixed, and all flags are flying in the correct position.

Found on a site full of rare photos from history, this particular picture shows what McD’s thought was the height of marketable mascots to kids back in 1963: a terrifying man in grease paint and stripes.

Sweet dreams.

Though Burger King officially dropped the mascot as their go-to guy for commercials and ads, someone decided to dress up in the costume and prank McDonald’s recently, and the fast-food chain isn’t happy about it.

It’s been reported that the man is part of a comedy troupe called “Woodcreek Faction” and that the prank was their doing; they uploaded a video of the shenanigans on YouTube, where you can see the King handing out Burger King burgers inside a McDonald’s, taking pictures with kids, and then abruptly leaving. When a manager confronted him, he said he was simply “raising money for charity”, although he collected no money during his visit.

Police were called to the scene, though no arrests were made.

This year, my personal challenge is around being thankful for the food I have to eat. I think many people forget that a living being has to die for you to eat meat, so my goal revolves around not letting myself forget that and being thankful for what I have. This year I’ve basically become a vegetarian since the only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself. So far, this has been a good experience. I’m eating a lot healthier foods and I’ve learned a lot about sustainable farming and raising of animals.

I started thinking about this last year when I had a pig roast at my house. A bunch of people told me that even though they loved eating pork, they really didn’t want to think about the fact that the pig used to be alive. That just seemed irresponsible to me. I don’t have an issue with anything people choose to eat, but I do think they should take responsibility and be thankful for what they eat rather than trying to ignore where it came from.

This weekend, he posted the following status update:

I updated my grilling app, iGrill, today and it now has Facebook integration that lets you see what other people are grilling right now around the world. Awesome. I’m making a Fred’s steak.

Apparently, that’s not something that he killed. If you take a look at the other side of his Timeline, you’ll see his recent activity, which also includes “liking” Chicken McNuggets on Saturday.

Of course, this is just a Facebook “interest” page, and not an actual Page from McDonald’s. Perhaps he’s only interested in McNuggets.

Earlier this month, he “liked” McDonald’s:

Not a bad endorsement for a company who seems to have had its share of stumbles in social media marketing.