McDonald’s and Burger King have a major beef — and not the kind sold in their restaurants.
The food fight started last month, when McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski posted a video of himself eating the fast-food giant’s new Big Arch burger on social media. The video was to promote the new product, which was released on Tuesday.
“That’s a big bite for a big arch!” Kempczinski said, holding up the burger with a negligible bite mark.
The video went viral for the apparent discrepancy. Social media users also started questioning if Kempczinski finished the burger for lunch as he said he would in the video.
‘This almost feels dystopian. He’s acting like he’s afraid of it. And just to call it a ‘product,'” one user wrote. “It just feels incredibly alien, makes me second-guess eating McDonald’s.”
“I ‘promise’ I will be finishing this for lunch!! I ‘swear’!!!” another wrote.
An Instagram account belonging to carmaker Mini Cooper also weighed in, writing: “Gonna start test driving our cars 1 metre at a time.”
Burger King’s comment, which received nearly 71,000 likes, was brief: “we couldn’t finish it either.”
Then on Tuesday, the day the Big Arch was released, Burger King posted a video of its president, Tom Curtis, eating its signature Whopper cheeseburger on Instagram.
“Thought we’d replay this,” Burger King wrote in the caption.
The fast-food behemoth denied that the video was related to the spat.
“We can confirm that this video was not created in reaction to anything,” a Burger King spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News on Wednesday. “While the timing may seem quick, the video was part of ongoing efforts to spotlight the recently elevated Whopper and Tom’s direct engagement with Guests.”
“We believe leadership should genuinely enjoy and stand behind the food we serve, and it was important for him to experience the Whopper the same way our Guests do as we continue building momentum around our menu updates,” the spokesperson continued.
When asked for a statement, a spokesperson for McDonald’s referred to a recent post on its Instagram account.
The post has an image of the company’s new burger, with the following caption: “Take a bite of our new product. Can’t believe this got approved.”
On Wednesday, competitor Wendy’s appeared to weigh in on the spat. On LinkedIn, Wendy’s posted a video of its U.S. president digging into one of their burgers.
“Lots of chatter this week about burgers,” a caption for the video reads. “Thought we’d remind everyone what fresh, never frozen tastes like.”
