Around the World: McDonald's Germany's Los Wochos is Back

Los Wochos is a Mexican-themed menu offered now and again by McDonald's in Germany. If you actually speak Spanish or like me, ran "wochos" through Google Translate, you realize that it is not a Spanish word. It's actually a bastardization of the German word "woche," which means week, although the promotion typically runs longer than that.

In a similar vein, the menu includes Los Beefos aka "Los your-not-even-trying-anymore." They're beef meatballs with a spicy breading. At this point, you realize that the Los Wochos menu is as Mexican as McDonald's UK's Great Tastes of America menu is American. This actually sounds somewhat Italian to me, just because of the meatballs, but hey, it might be good. For dipping, there's a spicy salsa tomato sauce.

The burgers there's the El Chili Con Carne and the Chicken Fiesta.

Now El Chili Con Carne is something that sounds like it maybe should be on the Great Tastes of America menu, since chili con carne is the official dish of Texas. The burger sounds interesting enough, it features a beef patty with kidney beans and corn mixed inside (a first for McDonald's I think). It's joined by lettuce, tomatoes, a spicy chili sauce, and sour cream.

The Chicken Fiesta comes with a crispy-fried chicken patty, accompanied by corn, cheddar cheese, hot sauce, and sour cream.

While the menu is harmless enough, the ad spot to support it is a little bit racist, which might fly in a country with a largely homogenous population, it probably doesn't work out so well if you're a multi-national company like McDonald's with locations in Mexico. Here's the commercial:

While I can see the Mexican flag, the luchador, and mariachi costumes as things that are "Mexican," what is up with the mustache, the black wig, and what sounds like a faux-Mexican accent on the German voice over? Also, apparently, shouting "Ole!" is a Spanish thing (most commonly associated with bullfighting) and not a Mexican thing.