McDonald's Christmas coffee cup sends Twitter into meltdown

The altered image has gone viral on social media with more than 12,000 retweets and 20,000 favourite's. Photo / Sam Sykes Twitter

Forget the frenzy over Starbucks' red holiday cups, now it's McDonald's sending coffee lovers wild - and for a very cheeky reason.

One eagle-eyed McDonald's fan noticed that the design on one of the limited edition festive McCafe cups looks like someone showing off their derriere, if you make one small alteration.

And the NSFW observation has sent Twitter into a meltdown, with the image going viral on the social media website.

Now how the hell are Starbucks cups in the news again and no one's talking about a guy spreading his cheeks open on McDonald's cups pic.twitter.com/QmIuZiDJst

— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) December 11, 2016

One user compared it to a Turner Prize-nominated sculpture of a man clasping the cheeks of his posterior.

The design on the front of the red cup is supposed to look like a pair of mittens.

But if you draw fingers on the thumb of the mitten, it instead looks like someone clasping the cheeks of their posterior, and mooning the world.

The very rude design was spotted by US fantasy author Sam Sykes, who posted a picture of the cup with fingers drawn onto the design to Twitter yesterday.

Since then, his NSFW observation has had more than 12,000 retweets and nearly 20,000 favourites - and many people say they 'can't unsee' the cheeky logo.

Sam tweeted with his altered cup image: "Now how the hell are Starbucks cups in the news again and no one's talking about a guy spreading his cheeks open on McDonald's cups.:

The hilarious image swiftly went viral.

One user compared the image to a Turner Prize-nominated sculpture of a man clasping the cheeks of his posterior.

Giovanni Tiso commented: "McDonald's daring homage to contemporary art."

McDonald's daring homage to contemporary art. pic.twitter.com/wjNrAz9rI8

— Giovanni Tiso (@gtiso) December 11, 2016

IM HIM said: ‏"Um... @McDonalds methinks you need help with your graphics," before adding, "Spreading a liiiiiittle too much Christmas cheer."

Spreading a liiiiiittle too much Christmas cheer. ;)

— 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐕𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐀 (@ziyatong) December 11, 2016

It is unclear in which country the McDonald's mitten cups come from, or if they are even real. The fast food giant has been reached for comment by Femail Food&Drink.

Twitter users found the cheeky design hilarious.

"Lmao McDonald's Christmas coffee cup tho," tweeted Himel Anthony, while Ziyah at radio station The Bounce said: "The @McDonalds holiday cup this year sure is a real bummer....just sayin' LOL."

Cranky McCrankymom ‏had some advice for McDonald's. "That is an extremely unfortunate design. Don't any companies keep a 12-year-old on hand for this?"

That is an extremely unfortunate design. Don't any companies keep a 12-year-old on hand for this?

— Cranky McCrankymom (@MaraGreengrass) December 11, 2016

Jose Torres posted a picture of an actor recreating the same position.

Pascalle Lepas ‏said: "Can't handle how great this is 10/10."

Brandon Chang ‏couldn't even guess what the design was supposed to represent after seeing Sam's altered image.

He said: "Whoa, that is exactly the first thing I saw. I can't unsee it. What is it supposed to be??"

Athiest Engineer agreed and said: "Now that I've seen it as someone spreading their cheeks, I can't figure out what It's supposed to be. @SamSykesSwears ruined me."