CHICAGO — McDonald’s communications and marketing leadership spent significant time this past weekend in emergency consultation following the viral spread of CEO Chris Kempczinski’s Big Arch promotional video, according to sources familiar with the internal response who described the mood as “active” and the use of the word “product” in subsequent internal communications as “noticeably reduced.”
The video — posted by Kempczinski in early February and ignored for nearly a month before the internet discovered it over the past weekend and processed it with the focused intensity of a society that has run out of other things — had accumulated over 4.5 million views by Sunday and had generated a response from Burger King, a response from Wendy’s, a response from A&W Canada, a response from Ryanair (which again: an airline), and a response from the Mini Cooper social media account, which is a car.
The internal meeting, which Supposedly News cannot confirm occurred because McDonald’s has not confirmed it occurred and has in fact declined to comment on everything related to this story, is believed by sources to have addressed the following agenda items:
- The video: what happened, who approved it, and at what point in the approval chain someone watched a CEO say “I love this product” with the energy of a man presenting quarterly earnings to a hostile board and thought “yes, this is the one, post it.”
- The bite: specifically, its size, and specifically, the gap between the CEO’s description of it as “a big bite for a Big Arch” and the internet’s description of it as “the smallest unit of food consumption visible to the human eye.”
- The word “product”: how many times it appeared in the video, whether anyone had flagged this during production, and whether there is a company style guide for the word “product” and if so why the CEO did not have it.
- Whether Kempczinski finished the burger: this is, sources say, a question that came up organically and that nobody in the room was able to answer definitively, which is information.
A slide deck, reportedly titled “The Product Situation,” was circulated before the call. Three people asked Supposedly News not to call it that. We have called it that.
The PR Strategy, As Best As Can Be Determined
McDonald’s communications response to the crisis has, from the outside, followed a strategy that Deborah Shill, Political Analyst turned corporate observer, describes as “leaning into it and hoping for the best, which is occasionally the correct call.”
The company’s Instagram posted a photo of the Big Arch with the caption “Take a bite of our new product” — deploying the word “product” with what communications professionals are calling either “extraordinary self-awareness” or “the same copy team not realizing why it was funny now” and which Supposedly News cannot determine from available evidence.
McDonald’s social media engaged with commenters roasting the video, a practice that signals either genuine good humor or a social media manager operating with insufficient oversight, and which generated additional engagement either way.
Kempczinski himself has not commented. This is, corporate communications specialists told Supposedly News (fictional specialists; real assessment), probably the right call. The ideal outcome at this point is for the story to continue to generate attention for the burger while quietly transitioning from “CEO mocking” to “viral moment the brand leaned into gracefully,” a maneuver that requires the CEO to remain off the field and the social media team to continue doing whatever they are doing with apparent composure.
Whether this will work depends largely on whether Kempczinski posts another video before the news cycle moves on. Multiple sources have advised him, presumably, not to do this. Whether he will follow this advice is unknown. He did post the first one.
The Larger Question Nobody Is Asking
Somewhere in the executive leadership of one of the largest restaurant companies on earth, a video was reviewed, approved, scheduled, and posted that contained a CEO calling a hamburger “the product” several times, taking a bite small enough to be measured in milligrams, and then signing off with a promise to enjoy the remainder of the experience somewhere private.
At every stage of that process, someone watched it. Someone approved it. Someone did not stop it.
These are the real questions. Not whether the bite was too small — it was too small, the internet is correct about this — but who watched the video in its final form, thought “this will work,” and clicked post.
That person has, presumably, also attended the emergency meeting. They have, presumably, a very interesting perspective on the slide deck. Their name is not known to Supposedly News.
Their name is also not “Product.” Probably.
McDonald’s declined to comment. Supposedly News thanks them for their consistency.
Deborah Shill covers corporate communications, political messaging, and the question of who exactly approves these things. She has watched the video. She has thoughts about the sweater vest. She is keeping them to herself.