Fast food brands roast McDonald's after CEO burger tasting mishap

Mike Snider, USA TODAYSat, March 7, 2026 at 5:40 PM UTC

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Fast food brands roast McDonald's after CEO burger tasting mishap

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski's video of a Big Arch burger taste test set off an ongoing social media scrum with fast-food brands piling on and some trying to change the narrative.

As the March arrival of McDonald's biggest burger ever neared, the February video of Kempczinski taking a bite of the Big Arch surfaced. "I love this product," Kempczinski says in the clip ahead of trying the burger. "It is so good. I'm gonna do a tasting right now, but I'm gonna eat this for my lunch, just so you know."

Business news site Inc. noted in its chronicle of the fallout, "Sharp-tongued viewers first took aim at the single, timed nibble Kempczinski took from the XXL burger during the entire 81-second video."

Competitors Burger King and Wendy's pounced, issuing snarky videos of their own execs happily chomping on their burgers.

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McDonald's tried to regain control of the situation with an Instagram post poking gentle fun at Kempczinski's fumble with its own Instagram post saying, "take a bite of our new product," echoing the CEO's description of the Big Arch.

The competition wasn't ready to let the action die down. Jack in the Box posted a video of its Jack mascot saying, "Small bites? We don't do that here."

A&W Canada posted a TikTok of taste tester Allen Lulu munching on a Teen Burger saying, "We love this product, which most people call a burger" and inviting Kempczinski to lunch.

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Following that, Chris Dull, CEO of Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, dished up an Instagram video of "eating his burger like he does all the time" and devouring items from the chain's menu throughout the day.

Beyond burgers, fast-food chains dish on chicken and biscuits

The online food fight escalated beyond burgers. After Wendy's announced on March 5 a new contest to hire a Chief Tasting Officer, with a $100,000 salary, Popeyes chimed in on X: "they really do need to hire someone to taste their food to be fair."

Wendy's retort: "Flopeyes." To which, Popeyes offered, "maybe your new chief tasting officer can make a better comeback 🤡"

Things were just heating up as Church's Chicken issued this comeback to Popeyes: "And who taste tested your biscuits?? 👀" Popeyes' response: "glad we could make you relevant again"

The discussion moved to the quality of each chain's biscuits with nearly 1,000 comments.

Another chicken player, Kentucky Fried Chicken, joined the fray on Friday, March 6. In a video posted across social media platforms, KFC U.S. President Catherine Tan-Gillespie noted, “I’ve been seeing a lot of CEOs talking about burgers lately … good for them. At KFC, we’ll leave the beef to the boys. No products – just finger lickin’ good chicken.”And with that, Tan-Gillespie took a big bite of a KFC Chicken Sandwich.

Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Burger King, Wendy's and other fast food brands roast McDonald's

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