In celebration of National Ice Cream Day on July 16, McDonald’s USA is celebrating its iconic vanilla soft serve—made with no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives—by treating fans in two ways: at participating restaurants nationwide, free vanilla cones will be offered all day long through the McDonald’s app and one lucky guest will have the chance to win free soft serve for life.
Guests wishing to enjoy a free Vanilla Cone need only download the McDonald’s mobile app and redeem the Free Vanilla Cone offer on July 16 to enjoy this delicious cold treat. One guest—and one guest only—will receive a special “Golden Arches Cone,” an exclusive, limited edition cone that entitles the winner to McDonald’s soft serve for life. For a chance to win the Golden Arches Cone, soft serve enthusiasts must redeem the Free Vanilla Cone offer in the mobile app on July 16 between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. local time.
In May of this year, McDonald’s unveiled a sweet surprise—that its soft serve is made with no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. McDonald’s started the switch in fall of 2016 but announced it once nearly all of its 14,000-plus restaurants nationwide were offering the new treat. This joined other changes McDonald’s has made, such as removing artificial preservatives from McNuggets, committing to cage-free eggs by 2025 in the U.S. and Canada, and only serving chicken made from chickens not treated with antibiotics important to human medicine.
“The positive changes we’ve made to our menu, including our vanilla soft serve, show we are fully committed to continuing to raise the bar at McDonald’s,” says Darci Forrest, senior director of menu innovation at McDonald’s. “We are thanking all our guests with free vanilla soft serve on National Ice Cream Day. And we are excited to see which lucky individual will be handed a special Golden Arches Cone, signifying free soft serve for life!”
McDonald’s soft serve impacts 60 percent of the desserts served by McDonald’s, including McCafé Shakes and McFlurry desserts. In addition, all three shake flavors (chocolate, strawberry and vanilla) have no high fructose corn syrup and contain whipped topping made with no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives.