After McDonald’s lost its Big Mac trademark in the EU earlier this month, competitor Burger King wasted no time taking a big, juicy bite out of the world’s biggest burger chain.
Burger King’s Swedish operation recently revamped menus to poke fun at McDonald’s loss. Under the header Not Big Mac’s (sic), the sign listed meal options like “Burger Big Mac Wished It Was”, “Like a Big Mac, But Actually Big” and “Big Mac-ish But Flame-Grilled of Course”.
The chain released a video showing customers tentatively ordering from among the unusual choices, while a staff member appears unfazed as he calls out for Anything But a Big Mac.
The stunt comes after McDonald’s lost the rights to its Big Mac trademark as part of its own lawsuit against a smaller burger company, the Irish chain Supermac’s. However, EU regulators found that McDonald’s had not proven genuine use of the name in the five years leading up to the case, Reuters explained.
“McDonald’s just lost its trademark for the Big Mac for suing a much smaller player … it’s too much fun for us to stay away,” said Iwo Zakowski, CEO of Burger King’s Swedish operation, in a news release.
Burger King has a history of trolling McDonald’s in a sort of David and Goliath struggle, if both David and Goliath were corporate behemoths.
Last month, in a complex piece of digital maneuvering, it offered people in the vicinity of McDonald’s one-cent Whoppers, CNN reported. To promote its app, it allowed users to unlock the deal if they were standing near a McDonald’s location. They were then directed to the nearest Burger King, where they could obtain something Big Mac-ish, but flame grilled, of course.