Big Arch promotion triggers skepticism and a Burger King jab
A new McDonald’s burger launch has turned into an online brand skirmish, after a promotional video from Chief Executive Chris Kempczinski drew scrutiny over what viewers called an unusually small bite. Kempczinski posted the clip last month while promoting the company’s new Big Arch burger, which was released on Tuesday.
In the video, Kempczinski holds up the sandwich and says, “That’s a big bite for a big arch,” while the burger shows what many users described as a negligible bite mark. The post gained traction quickly, with commenters questioning whether the CEO actually ate the burger as promised and framing the clip as an awkward corporate performance rather than a straightforward food endorsement.
One user wrote that the scene felt dystopian and said the tone made them rethink eating at McDonald’s. Another mocked the promise to finish the burger for lunch. The discussion spread beyond consumers, with the Mini Cooper Instagram account joining the thread with a joke about test driving cars a meter at a time.
Burger King responds with a viral quip and a Whopper video
Burger King added fuel to the moment with a short comment that drew significant engagement. The company wrote, “we couldn’t finish it either,” a line that received nearly 71,000 likes.
On Tuesday, the day the Big Arch debuted, Burger King posted a separate video showing its president, Tom Curtis, eating a Whopper cheeseburger on Instagram. The caption read, “Thought we’d replay this,” a framing that many viewers interpreted as a direct response to the McDonald’s clip.
Burger King pushed back on that interpretation. A spokesperson told NBC News on Wednesday that the video was not created in reaction to anything and said the timing reflected ongoing efforts to highlight the upgraded Whopper and Curtis’s engagement with customers. The spokesperson said leadership should genuinely enjoy the food it sells and that it mattered for Curtis to experience the Whopper the same way guests do as the company builds momentum around menu updates.
McDonald’s leans into the meme as Wendy’s joins the chatter
McDonald’s did not offer a separate statement on the exchange. Instead, a company spokesperson pointed to a recent Instagram post featuring an image of the Big Arch and a caption that reads, “Take a bite of our new product. Can’t believe this got approved.” The line suggests the brand is leaning into the viral attention rather than treating it as a reputational problem.
Wendy’s also appeared to enter the conversation on Wednesday with a post on LinkedIn. The company shared a video of its U.S. president eating one of its burgers. The caption referenced the week’s burger discussion and promoted Wendy’s positioning around fresh, never frozen beef, using the online attention as a moment to reinforce product messaging.
Fast-food marketing shifts toward executive endorsements
The exchange highlights a wider marketing trend in which brands use executives as on-camera endorsers to signal confidence in new products. The approach can generate higher engagement than traditional ads, but it also raises the stakes because small details can be clipped, mocked, and remixed at scale.
In this case, a short video meant to introduce a new menu item turned into a multi-brand moment driven by audience reaction and competitor participation. For McDonald’s, the visibility may still function as marketing, even if the attention is uneven. For Burger King and Wendy’s, the episode offered a low-cost opportunity to amplify their own messaging while the internet was already focused on burgers.
