The McDonald’s CEO Can’t Eat a Burger
Chris Kempczinski, McDonald’s CEO, posted a video on February 3, 2026 trying to eat the new Big Arch burger.
Chris Kempczinski, McDonald’s CEO, posted a video on February 3, 2026 trying to eat the new Big Arch burger. Looking profoundly uncomfortable. He took a bite so small the bun appeared untouched afterward. He called the burger “this product” repeatedly instead of just calling it a burger.
You could tell immediately: this man does not eat McDonald’s.
The video was supposed to show the CEO loves his company’s food. Instead it revealed he finds eating it awkward and unpleasant. When you earn $19.2 million annually, you don’t actually eat fast food burgers. Everyone watching knew it. Kempczinski knew we knew it. He tried to perform enthusiasm anyway.
It didn’t work.
Watch Him Struggle
“I love this product. It is so good,” Kempczinski says in the 1 minute 21 second Instagram video. Using the word “product” or “the product” multiple times. Kempczinski only says “burger” twice in the entire video.
He describes the “unique” seeded bun. He lists ingredients. Holding the burger awkwardly, like someone who doesn’t regularly eat handheld food. Then he takes what he calls “a big bite for a Big Arch.”
The bite is minuscule. Maybe a quarter inch. The bun looks completely intact after he bites. You can barely see any difference.
“I’m gonna eat this for my lunch, just so you know,” he says before biting. After chewing and swallowing, he adds: “It’s a delicious product. I’m gonna have this for lunch.”
Saying twice that he’ll finish it for lunch gave the game away. People who actually want to eat a burger don’t announce they’ll eat it later. They just eat it. The reassurance that he’ll definitely finish it someday revealed his discomfort.
Why It Looked So Bad
Kempczinski holds the burger like it’s a foreign object. His hands position it carefully, turning it to show the camera. Normal burger-eaters just grab it and bite.
He announces he’s taking a “big bite” before nibbling. The performative nature destroys any authenticity. Someone genuinely enjoying a burger doesn’t narrate their eating.
The corporate language killed it. “This product.” “The product.” “A delicious product.” Nobody talks like that about food they actually want to eat. You say “this burger is great” or “I love the Big Arch.” You don’t say “this product is delicious.”
His face after chewing showed no genuine pleasure. He looked like someone completing an unpleasant task for work. Which is exactly what he was doing.
The whole video radiated “I don’t want to be here eating this.” Every gesture, every word choice, every facial expression communicated discomfort.
What It Revealed
McDonald’s CEO doesn’t eat McDonald’s. This isn’t surprising. Someone earning eight figures annually eats at high-end restaurants, has private chefs, or at minimum chooses from the entire universe of food options.
But McDonald’s markets itself as food everyone loves, from CEOs to front-line workers. The video accidentally revealed this is a lie. The CEO finds eating his company’s food so unpleasant he can barely take a real bite on camera.
Kempczinski claims he eats McDonald’s “three to four times a week.” He posts Instagram videos regularly eating various menu items. But those appear to be work obligations too. He eats McDonald’s for marketing purposes, not because he wants to.
Compare this to someone who genuinely likes fast food. They eat enthusiastically. Taking big bites. They don’t carefully position the burger for optimal camera angles before nibbling the corner.
The video proved what everyone suspected: McDonald’s is food for poor and middle-class people. Rich people, including the CEO, eat it only when paid to.
Competitors Pounced
Burger King’s president Tom Curtis posted a video taking an enormous bite of a Whopper. Wendy’s president Pete Suerken ate a Baconator normally. A&W Canada released a full parody copying Kempczinski’s awkward phrasing.
The competitor videos worked because those executives looked comfortable eating burgers. Maybe they don’t regularly eat fast food either, but they could at least fake enthusiasm convincingly. Kempczinski couldn’t even do that.
Burger King’s UK account commented on the original video: “We couldn’t finish it either.”
The mockery spread across TikTok and Twitter. Users created parody videos taking tiny bites of various foods while calling them “products.” The format became a meme template.
McDonald’s Workers Noticed
Front-line McDonald’s workers earning $13-15 per hour saw their CEO struggle to eat the food they serve daily. The contrast was stark.
“The CEO can’t even pretend to like what we make,” one comment said. “But we’re supposed to smile and sell it to customers all day.”
Kempczinski makes $19.2 million annually. Workers make roughly $30,000 full-time. He finds eating a burger so distasteful he can barely bite it. They eat it because they get an employee discount and can’t afford better options.
The video highlighted this class divide unintentionally. It wasn’t about pay gaps or working conditions explicitly. But showing the CEO’s visceral discomfort eating his own product made the divide visible.
The Marketing Failure
McDonald’s spent money producing this video. Someone approved it. Multiple people presumably reviewed it before posting. Everyone involved thought this would work.
Didd nobody watch the video and say “the CEO looks like he hates eating this”? How did the tiny bite make it past review? How did calling a burger a “product” four times seem okay?
Corporate marketing often exists in a bubble. People inside the company lose perspective on how content looks to outsiders. They focus on message points (CEO eats our food, CEO loves our food) and miss execution problems (CEO clearly doesn’t eat our food, CEO obviously hates our food).
The video succeeded at getting attention. The Big Arch burger launch gained massive visibility. But the attention was mockery, not enthusiasm.
What Kempczinski Should Have Done
He could have not posted the video. McDonald’s didn’t need the CEO eating a burger on camera to launch the Big Arch. Traditional advertising works fine.
If he insisted on appearing, he could have eaten the burger off-camera first to practice. Professional eaters make it look natural because they practice. Kempczinski needed more rehearsal.
Or McDonald’s could have hired an actor to play a CEO eating a burger enthusiastically in a commercial. At least that would be honest about the performance.
Better yet, McDonald’s could have sent their actual product development team to explain the new burger. People who developed it probably have more genuine enthusiasm than the CEO earning $19 million who clearly never eats there.
The Broader Pattern
Tech CEOs posting videos using their products rarely fail this badly because they usually do use their products. Tim Cook uses iPhones. Satya Nadella uses Microsoft software. Jeff Bezos shops on Amazon (probably).
Food and retail CEOs face different challenges. Brian Niccol at Starbucks earns $28 million and certainly doesn’t drink Starbucks regularly. But he hasn’t posted awkward videos pretending to.
The McDonald’s video became a case study in what not to do. Business schools will show it when teaching corporate communications and authenticity in marketing.
The lesson: if you can’t convincingly pretend to enjoy your product, don’t post videos pretending to enjoy it. Audiences detect inauthenticity immediately.
Kempczinski’s Silence
As of March 5, Kempczinski hasn’t commented on the viral mockery. McDonald’s declined media requests for comment. The video remains posted on his Instagram.
McDonald’s social media team leaned into it, posting “Take a bite of our new product” and engaging with memes. This damage control approach accepts the mockery while keeping attention on the Big Arch burger.
Kempczinski probably hopes the news cycle moves on. It will. But the video won’t be forgotten. It’s too perfect an example of executive inauthenticity to fade completely.
Everyone Can See
The McDonald’s CEO burger video crystallized something many people already believed: rich executives don’t actually consume the products they sell to everyone else.
This applies beyond fast food. Executives at budget airlines fly private. Retail CEOs don’t shop at their own stores except for photo ops. Pharmaceutical executives have private doctors and premium insurance.
The economic divide means different products for different classes. McDonald’s is for regular people. The CEO eats there only when contractually obligated for marketing.
The video accidentally revealed this truth. Kempczinski’s uncomfortable expression, tiny bite, and corporate language exposed what everyone suspected. He doesn’t think of McDonald’s as food he’d choose. He thinks of it as a product his company sells.
The mockery wasn’t just about a bad video. It was about class resentment toward executives earning millions while being unable to even pretend they live like their customers or workers.
Nobody expects the McDonald’s CEO to eat there regularly. But they expect him to fake it convincingly if he’s going to post videos about it. Kempczinski couldn’t even manage that.
