A simple burger video turned into one of the internet’s strangest corporate food fights. After a clip of Chris Kempczinski, the CEO of McDonald’s, tasting the chain’s new burger went viral, rival chains started posting their own taste tests. Suddenly executives from Burger King, Wendy’s, and KFC were on camera eating sandwiches like it was a competitive sport.
It started quietly enough. Kempczinski posted a short promotional video showing him trying McDonald’s new Big Arch burger. The sandwich had just rolled out nationally in the United States. Big bun and two patties — a premium push for the brand.
He held it up, took a careful bite, and smiled. “That’s a big bite for a Big Arch,” he said in the clip.
The moment might have disappeared into the endless scroll of corporate social media posts. Instead it blew up. Millions of views followed. Comment sections filled up even faster.
Some viewers noticed the bite looked tiny. Others joked that Kempczinski seemed nervous eating the burger. One commenter wrote that he looked “afraid of it.” Another mocked the way he called the burger a “product.”
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Within days, Burger King posted its own video. In that clip, Tom Curtis, president of Burger King U.S. and Canada, sits down with a Whopper. No hesitation. Big bite. A satisfied nod.
The caption from Burger King’s account was short and sharp, “Thought we’d replay this.” A comment under Kempczinski’s original post also caught attention, “We couldn’t finish it either.” The jab picked up tens of thousands of likes.
Burger King later said the video was not meant as a response. Timing, the company suggested, was coincidence. Still, the internet had already decided a burger war was underway.
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That’s when Wendy’s joined the conversation. The chain posted a video of its U.S. president Pete Suerken cooking and eating a Baconator. He flips patties on a grill, repeating Wendy’s long-running slogan, “Fresh, never frozen.”
Then he sits down and takes several large bites. “This is exactly what a good hamburger should be,” he says in the clip.
There’s a quick side joke too. Suerken makes a Frosty and notes the ice-cream machine is working — a small wink at a long-running internet joke about broken McDonald’s machines. A website tracker has even existed for years showing which McDonald’s locations have functioning soft-serve machines.
🍔 BACONATOR GOES VIRAL
🔴 A video of Wendy’s U.S. president Pete Suerken eating a Baconator has ignited a fast-food marketing battle online.
📜 The clip surfaced after McDonald’s announced its new Big Arch burger.
⚡ Fans online are comparing Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Burger… pic.twitter.com/uZBkdXmW0t
— THE INFORMANT USA 🇺🇸 (@TheInformantUSA) March 4, 2026
The burger video trend kept rolling. KFC jumped in next, though the chain sells chicken, not beef. U.S. president Catherine Tan-Gillespie appeared in a clip eating a chicken sandwich.
“Heard everyone’s talking about beef this week,” she says with a grin. Then another line, “At KFC we’ll leave that beef to the boys.”
Corporate marketing departments have long watched social media for moments like this. Fast food brands especially. The so-called “burger wars” go back decades — from the advertising battles between McDonald’s and Burger King in the 1980s to modern meme-driven marketing.
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Executives rarely appeared in the ads back then. Now they do. That shift reflects how brands try to look more personal online. CEOs appear on LinkedIn. Presidents of restaurant chains record casual videos. Some film themselves cooking. Others just take a bite and hope the internet approves.
Sometimes the internet laughs instead. Kempczinski’s original clip was meant to promote a new menu item. Instead it sparked a week of playful trolling between some of the largest fast-food companies in the world.
One small bite. Four companies posting taste tests. And millions of viewers suddenly watching corporate leaders eat lunch on camera.
