[DISCLOSURE: I RECEIVED A $5 MCDONALDS ARCH CARD FROM KLOUT.]
I've earned several Klout perks, but this is the first one that I was actually able to use.
As you can see from the receipt, I applied the $5 from the Arch Card to a $7.44 meal. If I had literally chosen to just try the Bacon Clubhouse Burger, the $5 Arch Card would have covered the cost.
McDonalds' goal in the promotion was to get people to try - and ideally to talk about - its new Bacon Clubhouse Burger.
Thick-cut Applewood smoked bacon, caramelized grilled onions, white cheddar*, crisp leaf lettuce and fresh tomato, all lovingly layered on a quarter pound** of 100% pure beef, then topped with Big Mac special sauce. Served on our artisan roll.
(Note: the burger is also available in grilled and crispy chicken configurations.)
Unfortunately, much of the discussion of the Bacon Clubhouse Burger is canned. You'll see a lot of tweets like this:
Getting an unbeatable taste of the new #BaconClubhouse burger thanks to mcdonalds my klout perk!
You'll notice that I refrained from using the word "unbeatable" in my post title (which is also tweeted). I figure that if I'm going to shill something, I might as well put a bit of original effort into it. (A lesson that I learned from the aforementioned influential bloggers.)
In this case, it's fair to say that this promotion is a win-win-win situation. McDonalds gets some online discussion about its new offering from people who presumably have the ear of others. The Klout perk recipients, of course, get free food. And Klout, which was just acquired by Lithium Technologies, gets some free publicity.
Oh, and my review of the burger. I rarely get the high end burgers from fast food places (these days, I'm more likely to get the plain burger when I go to McDonalds), but this one clearly falls into the premium category - a cut above the Big Macs and Quarter Pounders which were McDonalds' mainstays until a few years ago. If you like bacon, this is definitely recommended.
One more disclosure is in order - when I went to the McDonalds to get the meal, my receipt had a "buy one get one free" offer. However, I'm not going to use it - since even one of these sandwiches is filling, I'm certainly not going to order two.
