McDonald's CEO Goes Viral for Awkward Big Arch Burger Promotion Video

Chris Kempczinski posted what was meant to be an enthusiastic product launch moment to his Instagram account on Feb. 3, 2026. What followed was a masterclass in how quickly a CEO's attempt at relatability can collapse in public.

The clip, which flew under the radar for weeks before going viral, showed the McDonald's president and CEO trying the new Big Arch burger. Kempczinski opened the box with a "Holy cow," declared "I love this product, it is so good," and then took what viewers described as a comically small bite before turning the sandwich toward the camera and announcing, "Mmm, that is so good, that's a big bite for a Big Arch." The clip eventually accumulated more than 3.5 million views.

Two details set off the mockery: the bite size, and the word "product." Kempczinski called the sandwich "the product" repeatedly throughout the clip, an unusual choice that struck commenters as revealing corporate distance from the actual food. He also acknowledged he "didn't even know how to attack it" before hesitantly lifting the burger to his mouth. Instagram commenters were not gentle. "Man's aura screams kale salad," read one widely-circulated reply. "This was the most unnatural thing I've ever seen," said another. "Why does he look like he's scared to bite it?" a third asked. One commenter put it plainly: "He definitely don't eat McDonalds."

The Guardian quoted a commenter who zeroed in on the language: "It scares me when you call the food 'product.'" A Reddit user went further, writing: "If McDonald's cares about its future, they need to make sure [Kempczinski is] anywhere but in front of a camera."

On Twitter, @RoyalMelanite offered what became perhaps the defining summation: "Watching the McDonald's CEO tentatively nibble on the Big Arch like it's a radioactive artifact from the dollar menu, calling it 'product' instead of food, is the most unintentionally hilarious endorsement fail since New Coke." @Nick_TopG added a structural critique: "Even crazier when you think that this was made in HQ by corporate chefs. This burger (I mean product) is worlds better than anything you would ever get at an actual McDonald's, and he still wanted nothing to do with it."

The timing was pointed. Kempczinski had previously claimed in another video that he eats McDonald's fare three to four times a week, a claim followers revisited pointedly after watching him handle a burger like a foreign object. Burger King's president reportedly added to the pile-on with a response video, though McDonald's and Burger King have not publicly commented on the exchange.

The Big Arch itself is no small launch. The burger, which features two quarter-pound patties, Big Arch sauce, lettuce, crispy onions and pickles, debuted in the UK and Ireland in January 2026 as a permanent menu addition. Its US arrival on March 3 marked McDonald's first new permanent global menu item since Chicken McNuggets in 1983.

Kempczinski has led McDonald's since 2019, when he succeeded Steve Easterbrook, who was fired after engaging in a relationship with a senior female employee. In 2023, the SEC fined Easterbrook $400,000 for concealing the extent of his misconduct.

For a CEO with roughly 81,100 Instagram followers who regularly uses the platform to project business acumen and accessibility, the viral moment was a reminder that authenticity on camera is harder to fake than it looks, especially when the product, as it were, is a burger and the audience knows exactly what eating one is supposed to look like.