McDonald’s CEO responds after viral Big Arch video sparks backlash

McDonald’s was trying to show off the Big Arch, but the internet had other ideas, and now CEO Chris Kempczinski has addressed his big viral moment.

Previously, a promotional clip featuring Kempczinski taking on the chain’s chunky new Big Arch burger quickly went the wrong kind of viral, with viewers zeroing in on what many thought was an almost comically small first bite.

The fact that the McDonald’s boss also called the burger a ‘product’ more than once did not help, and the comments filled up fast with people joking that he looked less like a man enjoying lunch and more like somebody reluctantly completing a task set by head office.

That would already have been enough to keep social media busy, but the clip then got the extra boost that always guarantees a story sticks around for longer. Rival fast food brands joined in, with Burger King and KFC among those reported to have posted their own digs, helping turn a slightly awkward promo into a full-blown bit of burger mockery online.

Kempczinski has now addressed the backlash and said he first realised just how far the video had travelled after getting a warning from home. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, with a clip from the interview shared on X (formerly Twitter), he said: “I got a call from one of my kids, and they said, ‘Dad, you've gone viral and not in a good way’. So that's when I knew like, 'Ok, something's going on’”

Kempczinski added he started getting texts, calls, and emails asking whether he had seen the video doing the rounds.

Still, the fast food CEO did not sound especially rattled by it, and was at least happy that the video made people aware of the product as intended, even if that came at a cost. He said: “For me, it's one of those things where it's great that people are talking about the Big Arch, and I think when you go onto social media in general, you have to have a thick skin.”

Kempczinski also seemed fairly clear-eyed about why these moments now play out the way they do. As noted by The Tribunal, he said: “We're in a world now where this creator economy and how consumers are engaging with brands, it's a lot more dynamic,” before adding: “This notion that you can control everything, that's not the world that we're in. I think there's a cynicism and a skepticism that goes around advertising…The consumers are actually just as much in control of our brand as we are.”

He even found room to joke about the bite itself, which had some of the criticisms implying he didn’t actually eat meat, saying: “I'm definitely not a vegetarian. I blame it all on my mom, you know, she taught me, 'Don't talk with your mouth full.' I think probably in this case, I should have probably just said, ‘to hell with it, I'm gonna talk with my mouth full.’”