About

McDonald's CEO Burger Test or McDonald's CEO Tries The Big Arch refers to a viral video in which McDonald's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Christopher Kempczinski performed a taste test of the fast-food chain's new Big Arch burger, taking a small bite from the edge, which many online perceived as disgust toward the product. The clip was initially posted to Instagram in early February 2026, before spreading to various platforms such as X / Twitter, TikTok and Reddit in early March 2026. Many of the memes and reactions toward the viral video compared Kempczinski to an alien or speculated that he was repulsed by his company's own food.

Origin

McDonald's CEO Christopher Kempczinski posted his McDonald’s Big Arch burger video review to his Instagram^[1] account chrisk_mcd on February 3rd, 2026, though the video did not receive much attention at this point. Over the course of the following month, the post garnered over 8 million views, 125,000 likes and 19,400 comments, largely after it went viral weeks later.

Spread

On February 5th, 2026, the video was reposted to X / Twitter^[2] by user @HustleBitch_, who commented on rising prices and lack of quality offered at the fast-food chain. The post has received 4.5 million views and 6,800 likes as of March 4th, 2026. The post sparked various reactions throughout the day.

X users pointed out Kempczinski's apparent distaste for the product in the comments. X user^[3] @Mr_Derivatives commented that the CEO clearly did not enjoy the taste test, which received 18,800 views and 250 likes in a month.

X user^[4] @dash_eats replied to the post on February 5th, saying that he had barely bitten the burger. The comment was viewed over 11,800 times and received 500 likes in a month.

Also that day, another X^[5] user, @eyeDoge, replied to the post with the Squidward Eating A Krabby Patty meme, which received over 2,600 likes and was viewed 90,900 times in a month.

The video began to spread on various platforms throughout February 2026 before receiving an influx of interest in early March 2026.

On March 2nd, 2026, TikTok^[6] user @undos posted a comedic skit recreating the awkward video review. The video received 4 million views and 364,900 likes in two days.

On March 3rd, 2026, Redditor DotMikrobe posted a meme about the viral moment to the /r/memes^[10] subreddit depicting a child crying while holding up a hamburger patty, titled "That is not a hamburger," garnering over 6,500 upvotes and 100 comments in 14 hours.

Burger King CEO Response

On March 3rd, 2026, the X^[7] account @PopCrave reported that Burger King CEO Josh Kobza had responded to the viral moment with a video enthusiastically taking a bite of a Whopper. The post received 29.1 million views and 150,000 likes in one day.

The same day, March 3rd, 2026, X^[8] user @DipWheeler made a post about the viral moment, garnering over 4.6 million views and 150,000 likes within a day.

Commentary regarding the video continued on the platform throughout the day. X^[9] user @PalmyrPar joined the discourse with their own post on March 3rd, which received approximately 1.8 million views and 92,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References