A chain that isn't McDonald's is selling an 'unhappy meal'

Debuting in June 1979, the Happy Meal is now among the most iconic items on the McDonald's (MCD) menu.

The red box with handles mirroring the Golden Arches that gives the proud owner a toy or a book alongside a child's-size burger and fries has now seeped into childhood memories of generations of Americans as well as citizens of countless other countries.

According to McDonald's own statistics, the fast-food chain sells over one billion Happy Meals in an average year which amounts to over 2.7 million a day in the more than 100 countries that have at least one location of the chain.

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Do you want some ‘dark, dry-witted heaven' in your food?

While most fast-food chains have their own version of the children's meal, one is choosing to lean into the reverse name to market a very different kind of offering: the Wendy's (WEN) Meal of Misfortune will be launched on August 4 to mark the second season of the Netflix (NFLX) show “Wednesday” on Aug. 6.

The “unhappy meal” is meant to feature exactly the kinds of foods that the sardonic and macabre character initially created by cartoonist Charles Addams would enjoy eating: “Rest in 10-Piece” Nuggets, “Cursed & Crispy” Fries and four “Inferno” sauces to dip it all in alongside a cold “Raven's Blood” Frosty.

The swirl of cherry syrup against the otherwise white vanilla ice cream is meant to mimic the kind of blood that Addams would find beautifully enchanting. The dips, dubbed You Can't Hyde, This Will Sting, Grave Mistake or Nowhere to Woe, feature different mystery flavors (one may be burn-your-mouth spicy while another may be confusingly sweet) and are randomly assigned with each meal sold.

“Wendy's and Wednesday are both cultural icons famous for challenging convention with wit and a bit of sass,” Wendy's Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Radkoski said in a statement. “This isn't a typical collaboration, because not just any brand could scheme up a Meal of Misfortune with Wednesday Addams. But for a brand that's proudly customer-obsessed and unapologetically bold, it was a match made in dark, dry-witted heaven.”

All the packaging also celebrates the show and Wednesday Addams' signature look: the sharp white collar on the brown paper bag and the ‘W' featured in the Wendy's logo drawn with spooky edges for any packaging that is used for those meals.

The Meal of Misfortune will drop in the U.S. on Aug. 4.

Wendy's

Want to get your Meal of Misfortune? Mark your calendar now

The meal will be available for purchase on Aug. 4 for a few weeks in a partnership with Netflix and the show. Along with the mainland U.S., the “Meal of Misfortune” will be available in Puerto Rico, Guam, Canada and the Bahamas both in physical restaurants and on the Wendy's app.

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With its dark underpinnings, the meal also helps set an early tone for Halloween. To promote it, Wendy's also snuck in a little quote from Wednesday Addams herself.

“Normally I'd be against this kind of capitalistic corporate synergy,” Nevermore Academy student Wednesday Addams said of the meal. “But when the fast-food-slinging pigtailed provocateur said I could do whatever I wanted to her customers, I couldn't resist.”