Corporate rivalries don’t get more delicious than this. Fast food chains are always battling for the top spot, but Burger King’s president took things to a whole new level, and he did it with mayo smeared right across his face. This comes after McDonald’s CEO and Chairman posted a video to Instagram introducing the chain’s new Big Arch Burger from his Chicago, Illinois, office.
Tom Curtis, who runs Burger King in the U.S. and Canada, jumped on TikTok and went all in. He took a huge bite of the new Whopper, without any second-guessing or stiff corporate speak. The Whopper itself is an upgraded bun, richer mayo, and it shows up in a fresh clamshell box. It’s the first time Burger King has shaken up their signature burger like this in almost ten years.
What made the video even better was the story behind it. Chris Kempczinski, the CEO and Chairman of McDonald’s, filmed himself in his Illinois office to hype up the new Big Arch Burger. He called it their boldest move yet: a gigantic sandwich. But people online couldn’t get past how he kept saying “product” instead of just calling it a burger or simply food. That, and everyone wondered if he actually eats McDonald’s himself. By the time the video ended, he had taken maybe two tiny bites, barely a nibble, then waved the burger around and promised to finish it later, off camera.
Social media pounced right away. Burger King didn’t need to call out McDonald’s, since everyone got the message the second Curtis’s video hit. Soon, Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, and X were full of clips comparing the two CEOs. Nobody seemed mad about it, as most folks found it hilarious. Watching these fast-food giants go toe-to-toe, trying to out-bite each other, just cracked people up.
From Illinois to Florida: The Internet Reacts to the Ultimate Burger Rivalry
The playful corporate moment quickly turned into meme fuel online, with many viewers enjoying the petty energy. “I fear this is my kind of petty,” one person wrote. Others compared leadership styles.“Yeah he reminds me of someone’s cool dad instead of someone’s robot butler,” a user commented. Another added, “This dude doesn’t look like he was grown in a lab in order to make ‘global conglomerate restaurant chain more money.’”
Some took shots at the competition. “Burger King CEO brutally frame moggs McDonalds CEO while cholesterolmaxxing,” one comment read, referencing Burger King and McDonald’s. Another joked, “Waiting for Wendy’s to come out and sit in like a whole pool of burgers or something crazy,” nodding to Wendy’s.
A few saw it as smart PR. “LMAO Damage control! This is the sort of silly story I want to see in a swathe of current events that are really serious and heartbreaking,” one user wrote. Another summed it up simply: “Being human and goofy is always going to win over being stiff, robotic and weirdly calling your burger a product. Burger King definitely wins this round.”
This week’s fast food battle wasn’t just about burgers. It was about who feels real, who actually means what they say. Burger King’s rolling out its new Whopper in over 7,000 spots right now, so Curtis dropping his video when he did was no accident. One CEO basically served up a perfect opening to the competition, and Burger King ran with it.
