Corporate executives: They’re absolutely nothing like us. You might be seeing memes and jokes on social media mocking what appears to be some random man’s wimpy bite into a burger. Here’s the big-mouthed backstory.
On Tuesday, McDonald’s launched its Big Arch burger, and a month before that, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski posted an Instagram video tasting it. But instead of digging into the double-patty, sauced-up and sloppy, 1,020-calorie burger, he … well, delicately nibbles at it? Like the late Queen Elizabeth II might have genteely sampled a cucumber sandwich at afternoon tea?
Kempczinski sings the praises of the Big Arch and then takes the world’s tiniest chomp at it, insisting he took “a big bite, for a Big Arch.”
Does he know what “big” means?
Not only that, but the CEO also says, patting the burger container awkwardly, “I love this product.” As if it’s an IKEA desk. This is America, Chris, we say “burger” here.
Kempczinski’s video came out a month before the burger’s release, and some commenters started grilling the big burger boss right away. But with this week’s release of Big Arch, the internet rediscovered the video.
Comedian Cat Sullivan re-creates the CEO’s video with an even stronger reluctance to taste the food, using the word “product” constantly.
Other restaurant chains especially sank their teeth into the joke. Burger King’s official account cracked, “We couldn’t finish it either” and slammed up an Instagram of its president, Tom Curtis, eating a BK Whopper with a lot more, uh, relish.
Wendy’s created a LinkedIn video showing its president, Pete Suerken, making and enjoying a Wendy’s burger, and he even got in a dig at McDonald’s famously often-broken ice cream machines. Suerken helps himself to a Frosty dessert and announces, “Oh, wait! Our machines are always working.”
Other brands piled on the original post.
“Gonna start test driving our cars 1 metre at a time,” posted car company Mini.
“Is the big bite in the room with us?” cracked the Instagram account for WingStop Canada.
“We do love a square,” wrote Wendy’s UK.
But at least the McDonald’s social media account tried to make fun of its own big boss. The company posted a photo of the Big Arch, using the same awkward term for it that the CEO did, with the caption, “Take a bite of our new product.”
The caption from the McDonald’s Instagram account is at least gamely self-aware, reading “can’t believe this got approved.”
