I’m not a huge fan of McDonald’s but whenever I’m visiting somewhere for the first time, if we happen to stop there for a quick meal, I like to check out how the menu differs.

Usually, you’ll only ever spot unusual things if you visit a different country. Two examples that spring to my mind are restaurants in Germany and Japan. When I was on student exchange in the German city of Freiburg, I visited McDonald’s in the Altstadt (old city), which unfortunately is built into a beautiful medieval gate called Martinstor (Martin’s Gate). It was there that I saw a McRib on the menu for the first time. ‘Fair enough then’, I thought. When in Tokyo, I saw what is arguably much more off-putting: the McHotdog. I don’t want to know what goes into that.

Whilst in Brisbane for work this week, I quickly ducked into a McDonald’s with a colleague. Being in Australia, everything was pretty much the same as back at home in Wollongong. Although I did spot something on the menu that I hadn’t seen before: the Bronco Burger.

Brisbane’s rugby league team is called the Brisbane Broncos, so naturally this is a bit of a cross-promotion to attract any fans walking in for a meal. It’s really just a regular-looking McDonald’s burger with a footy name.

I’m not sure that McDonald’s Australia has considered how such a name may be interpreted by any foreign tourists or people from non-English-speaking backgrounds. When they see the unfamiliar word ‘bronco’ and type it into the dictionary app on their iPhone, they’re going to think that McDonald’s has started to put horse meat in its burgers.

To be honest, considering how unhealthy the food is, I’m not sure that it would even matter. Who knows what actually finds its way into various food items there?

Perhaps we should embrace such a sporting homage and brand cross-promotion. Really, McDonald’s should just go all out and start naming burgers ‘McPhar Lap’ and the ‘Grand Angus Black Beauty’ and perhaps even change their cookies to ‘Seabiscuits’. I’m sure that they’d sell like hotcakes.