© Copyrighted image Living in Greece
The McSarakosti or burger me garides appears each year just before Lent, which is where the item gets its name, and the McDonalds.gr website sometimes goes blank to presumably remove any hint of online, meat-loving temptation during the fasting period. The commercial from 2006 won an Hermis award, though I only see bus stop billboards like the one pictured.
This is the commercial for Greece from 2008, released by the Character Agency in Athens.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAVe7x4DnKo]
What I find ironic is the sales line, “Pou allou to eides;” (“where else have you seen it?”), as if this is something unique to McDonald’s and Greece. It’s not. The Ebi Filet-O or McPrawn was created for Japan in October 2005, based on Lotteria‘s concept from the 1970s. Wendy’s also has a shrimp burger appear on its menu on occasion. Contrary to what some sources report, the McSarakosti was not created for Greece; it’s simply a product of crossover marketing.
If you crave a burger me garides more than once a year, or it sounds interesting and isn’t available in your country, try Sean’s recipe at “How to Make Your Own Ebi Burger.” Or you can do what I do and ignore the McSarakosti altogether. 
Related posts
“Taste of America in Greece”
“Corn dogs in Athens?”
“Three guys, two girls and a hamburger joint”
http://bit.ly/McSarakosti
Kat Reply:
April 30th, 2009 at 22:24
K – Hi and nice to see you here! The photo does look appetizing, and I hope you’ll tell us if the ad is representative of the real thing if you try it. From what I saw in customer photos, the Ebi burger of Japan is much lighter in color and resembles the Filet-O-Fish burger, so it’s difficult to understand if McSarakosti will be the same.