McDonald's CEO's Big Arch taste test sparked a war of fast-food copycats

• McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski's Big Arch taste test started a fast-food authenticity war.
• CEOs from rival fast food chains started posting their own taste tests to poke fun at Kempczinski.
• Despite its CEO being labeled cringey, McDonald's remains the center of the conversation.

When McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski posted a taste test of the chain's new Big Arch burger, the internet had notes.

Viewers mocked his buttoned-up delivery, his modest mouthful, and zeroed in on one word in particular: his description of the double-patty indulgence as a "product." Memes painted him as overly corporate and detached, more boardroom than drive-thru, and questioned whether he actually enjoyed the burger he was promoting.

The clip didn't just spark ridicule. It set off a chain reaction across the fast-food industry.

In the days since the clip went viral, rival CEOs from fast-food giants like Burger King to smaller chains like Ohio-based Gold Star Chili have posted their own taste-test videos, leaning hard into casual, messy, seemingly "authentic" reactions. What began as viral cringe quickly morphed into a broader battle over who could sell fast food with the most believable enthusiasm.

Mike Perry, founder of creative agency Tavern, told Business Insider that while its competitors began scrambling to win a carefully curated authenticity contest, McDonald's may be the real winner simply for commanding the spotlight. To him, the bigger question is why so many fast food CEOs are trying to be consumer-facing in the first place.

"These CEOs are so cringe," Perry said. "If you don't have the rizz of Steve Jobs, please stay off camera. Why do you need to be there? Why do you need to be testing the product?"

If a brand insists on putting its chief executive on camera, Perry argues, it needs to be done with intention, adding that audiences are quick to detect forced relatability.

The copycat videos risk spiraling into what he calls an "authenticity war" of executives trying to prove who can enjoy a burger most convincingly — but that effort can backfire.

"If you have to say 'I'm cool,' you're not cool. If you have to say 'I'm authentic,' you're not authentic," Perry said. "Everyone sees through it."

He's skeptical of brands inserting themselves into public back-and-forth unless it clearly adds value. Otherwise, he said, companies are simply "giving your equity and your air time to the other party."

"Attention is the first mover, product is second," Perry said. By prompting competitors to respond, McDonald's cemented itself as the center of the conversation. And, by participating at all, rivals like Wendy's and Burger King only strengthened that feedback loop.

"McDonald's is the clear winner out of this," Perry said.

The scale gap between the chains also helps explain why McDonald's can afford to let its rivals pile on. McDonald's is the largest of the burger giants by revenue and global footprint, with tens of thousands of locations worldwide — far outpacing Burger King and Wendy's. Its stock has also outperformed the broader market over the long term, underscoring its dominance and relative stability compared to peers.

In other words, even when competitors try to hijack the moment, they're still orbiting the industry's biggest player.

Anecdotally, the attention appears to be translating into curiosity. The buzz drove at least four Business Insider reporters, including senior correspondent Katie Notopoulos, to try the Big Arch burger, if only to see what all the fuss was about. (The verdict: it's tasty, bigger than a standard McDonald's sandwich, and unmistakably McDonald's.)

Still, Perry cautions that viral moments don't necessarily build lasting brand strength.

"Trends never work. They work for little sales blips," he said. If the goal is quarterly results, a flash of online attention may do the trick, but if the goal is long-term brand equity, he argues, this isn't it. He points instead to McDonald's recent Grimace-focused campaigns as examples of ideas that build nostalgia and staying power.

"This is just going to be another one of those internet cringe things," Perry said of the CEO taste test trend.

Cringe or not, it got people talking — and eating. In the battle of burger authenticity, McDonald's may not have looked the coolest, but it did what fast-food marketing is meant to do: make people hungry enough to place an order.