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In March, McDonald’s added a new item to its menu in the form of the Big Arch. Its CEO filmed himself tasting the new product in a video that went viral for all the wrong reasons, and he offered an explanation for its awkward nature while addressing it for the first time.
McDonald’s is one of the many fast food restaurants that are constantly tinkering with its menu, and there is plenty of work that goes into developing an item that’s destined to roll out at the close to 14,000 locations the chain boasts in the United States.
In March, a new offering popped up in the form of the Big Arch, a Big Mac-adjacent burger featuring two quarter-pound patties, white cheddar, lettuce, pickles, crispy and slivered onions, and the signature “Big Arch” sauce all sandwiched between a bun featuring sesame and poppy seeds.
Its arrival was heralded with a marketing push that included a clip of CEO Chris Kempczinski chowing down on one in a video that eventually made the rounds online for reasons he probably didn’t intend.
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Now, we’ve gotten some insight into why it was so weird courtesy of the man himself.
McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski broke his silence on his viral Big Arch taste test video
Kempczinski joined the McDonald’s corporate team in 2015 and has served as the CEO of the company since 2019. He hasn’t had a particularly visible role during his tenure, but he does operate a personal Instagram account dedicated to providing his followers with a peek behind the curtain of his position.
In February, the man who refers to himself as “Chris K” filmed himself chowing down on the Big Arch in a video that went viral shortly before its release at the beginning of March courtesy of viewers who were fairly unnerved by his stilted delivery and hesitance to take a sizeable bite of the burger he referred to as a “product.”
The clip managed to spawn some conspiracy theories, with some people speculating it was guerrilla marketing specifically designed to go viral and others asserting he doesn’t actually like eating the food McDonald’s serves or secretly harbors vegetarian tendencies.
It took more than a month, but Kempczinkski responded to the reception during a conversation with Tim Higgins of The Wall Street Journal where he revealed he was turned on to his newfound internet fame courtesy of one of his children, who told him, “Dad, you’ve gone viral and not in a good way.”
He took the “all press is good press” approach before addressing one of the aforementioned theories, saying:
“I’m definitely not a vegetarian.
I blame it all on my mom, because she told me not to talk with your mouth full. I think in that case, I probably should’ve just said, ‘You know what? To hell with it. I’m gonna go talk with my mouth full.'”
He also hammered home his non-vegetarian leanings by helping himself to some McNuggets on camera, so it seems like we can firmly put that speculation to rest.