Several fast food chain execs have jumped into the fray, mocking the viral video of McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski awkwardly promoting the new Big Arch burger.
Pete Suerken, president of Wendy’s, shared a video on Wednesday featuring him trying one of the restaurant’s iconic Baconator burgers. Suerken stepped up to the grill and slapped down the patties, flipped them over, and reiterated the fast food chain’s motto that their burgers were “fresh, never frozen.”
He also trolled a popular McDonald’s complaint about the soft serve machines always being broken. Suerken portioned out a Frosty and said, “Is this set up today? Oh, wait, our machines are always working.”
The exec sat down to enjoy a Baconator with a Frosty and some fries. He recorded himself taking a large bite and saying, “This is exactly what a good hamburger should be.” Next, Suerken dipped his fries in his Frosty.
It wasn’t just Wendy’s getting in on the joke. Burger King posted a video to its official TikTok page on Monday, showing company president Tom Curtis taking a big bite of the chain’s famous Whopper burger.
“Only one thing missing — a napkin,” he said after chowing down. Burger King wrote in the caption, “Thought we’d replay this.”
The controversy is going worldwide. The North Vancouver–based company A&W Canada also released a video of popular company spokesperson Allen Lulu dressed in an outfit similar to what Kempczinski wore in the original McDonald’s video.
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Lulu did a parody of the original, holding up an A&W Teen Burger and jokingly calling it a “burger product” and remarking on the “unique bread some would call a bun” and “lettuce, which is green.” He also noted the “pickles,” which he described as making the burger “taste pickly.”
He also took a huge bite of the burger before inviting Kempczinski to join him for lunch. “Just you, me, and a couple of Teen Burgers,” he says in the clip.
The original McDonald’s video was posted to Kempczinski’s Instagram last month, but went viral only recently. In it, the fast food CEO uses awkward language to describe the new menu offering, calling it a “product” repeatedly before taking a nibble he described as a “big bite.”
Viewers said it appeared Kempczinski was inauthentic and didn’t really care for the food at all. “What’s the opposite of genuine and authentic?” one popular Instagram comment said.
“This man does not like that ‘product,’” another person agreed.
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