The chief executive officer of McDonald’s recently blamed etiquette guidance from his mother for a February on-camera taste test that made him a target for ridicule – and summarily recorded another video of him eating one of the fast-food giant’s offerings in a manner potential consumers found awkward.
Chris Kempczinski suggested to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) earlier in April that he was simply heeding maternal advice to never talk with his mouth full when he took the humorously small bite at the center of a viral video which depicted him discussing and sampling the new Big Arch burger from McDonald’s.
“I blame it all on my mom because she told me, ‘Don’t talk with your mouth full,’” Kempczinski remarked to Tim Higgin, a WSJ columnist, in an interview captured on video. “And I think, probably in that case, I should have just said, ‘You know what? To hell with it. I’m gonna go talk with my mouth full.’”
During the conversation, Higgins asked Kempczinski whether he had any advice for how to smoothly eat on camera.
“Just dive right in,” Kempczinski replied while laughing – before announcing his intent to take a bite out of a McDonald’s chicken nugget and proceeding to do so.
The reaction was familiar to any of the many internet denizens who were put off by the 4 February social media video of him barely biting into a Big Arch, referring to it as a “product” that he didn’t “even know how to attack” because “there’s so much to it”.
One Instagram user responded to the chicken nugget video by writing that Kempczinski’s minuscule bite in that clip “was worse than the burger one”.
Another user of the platform added, “He still looks like he does not want to eat his own ‘products.’”
On TikTok, one user mused: “Why does he make it look painful?” A second user commented: “This doesn’t help,” while another asserted, “Damage control not working.”
The rhetoric in such comments called to mind the reaction to the Big Arch video, which achieved virality in late February and early March – and inspired one social media user to write: “It scares me when you call the food product.’”
Another said Kempczinski’s “aura screams kale salad”, implying he made an unconvincing sales pitch for the decadent Big Arch’s white cheddar cheese, tangy sauce and two quarter-pound beef patties.
Multiple users expressed frustration with Kempczinski being in the public spotlight again.
Business leaders have increasingly sought to place themselves in front of cameras as they try to seem relatable to social media-first audiences. The strategy can pay dividends if done correctly – yet it can invite digital mockery when it backfires.
None of the fun being had online at Kempczinski’s expense may bother him too much. Business Insider recently reported that McDonald’s stock was up about 3% over the previous year, despite the lukewarm critical reception with which the Big Arch was met in some sectors.
Kempczinski joined McDonald’s in 2015 after stints as a PepsiCo vice-president and Kraft International president – along with induction into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement. He became the Chicago-based chain’s CEO in 2019.
