Now, I’m not going to shit on these employees over their decision. They make crummy money doing thankless work, and the prospect of making over a hundred bucks just to sell a dumb packet of sauce would probably be too great for even me, and I’m a big ol’ pudge who loves sauces. However, all this commotion and dissatisfaction is 100% McDonald’s fault.

This was a fantastic idea that was gift-wrapped to McDonald’s; Rick and Morty’s fantastic first episode of season 3 created a fever for this otherwise forgettable sauce, and McDonald’s played along for a bit, sending jugs of sauce to Justin Roiland. All they had to do was reach an agreement with Adult Swim on a promotion that would give a rabid fanbase the thing they’ve been clamoring over for months.

Instead, the fast food juggernaut screwed up in every way that matters: They had the chance to sell out every dumb butternut chicken squanch across the country and provide a sauce to every fan, but instead they gave in to their greed and decided to create a collector’s item. They cultivated mass anger over this “promotion,” going for exclusivity instead of mass goodwill. Yes, they got a score of free publicity out of this event, as I saw news vans and reporters scouring the area to get a piece of this story, but McDonald’s had the chance to please a multitude of people, and instead ended up proving just how clueless they really are.

This tone-deaf event execution has pretty much soured me and legions others over the Golden Arches. I don’t plan on coming back until everyone can sample the sauce, and god knows when that’ll be.