Big Mac

The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by international fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. It was introduced in the Greater Pittsburgh area in 1967 and nationwide in 1968. It is one of the company's flagship products.

For other uses, see Big Mac (disambiguation).

Big Mac
Nutritional value per 1 sandwich 7.6 oz (215 g)
Energy540 kcal (2,300 kJ)
46 g (15%)
Sugars9 g
Dietary fiber3 g (13%)
28 g (43%)
Saturated10 g (50%)
Trans1 g
25 g
VitaminsQuantity %DV†
Vitamin A530 IU
Vitamin C
1%
1 mg
MineralsQuantity %DV†
Calcium
25%
250 mg
Iron
35%
4.5 mg
Sodium
63%
940 mg
Other constituentsQuantity
Salt equivalent2,425 mg
Energy from fat250 kcal (1,000 kJ)
Cholesterol80 mg
IngredientsSee text
Values may be different outside US market.
†Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.
Source: McDonald's USA Product Nutrition

History

The Big Mac was created by Jim Delligatti, an early Ray Kroc franchisee,[1] who was operating several restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. It was invented in the kitchen of Delligatti's first McDonald's franchise, located on McKnight Road in suburban Ross Township.[2] The Big Mac had two previous names, both of which failed in the marketplace: the Aristocrat, which consumers found difficult to pronounce and understand, and Blue Ribbon Burger. The third name, Big Mac, was created by Esther Glickstein Rose, a 21-year-old advertising secretary who worked at McDonald's corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois.[3] The Big Mac debuted at Delligatti's Uniontown, Pennsylvania restaurant in 1967, selling for 45 cents.[4] It was designed to compete with Big Boy Restaurants' Big Boy hamburger; Eat'n Park was the Pittsburgh area's Big Boy franchisee at the time.[5] The Big Mac proved popular and it was added to the menu of all U.S. restaurants in 1968.[4]

Product

The Big Mac consists of two 1.6 oz (45.4 g) beef patties, "special sauce" (a variant of Thousand Island dressing), iceberg lettuce, American cheese, pickles, and onions, served in a three-part sesame seed bun.[6] On October 1, 2018, McDonalds announced that it would remove all artificial preservatives, flavors, and coloring from the Big Mac.[7]

The Big Mac is known worldwide and is often used as a symbol of American capitalism and decadence. The Economist has used it as a reference point for comparing the cost of living in different countries – the Big Mac Index – as it is so widely available and is comparable across markets. This index is sometimes referred to as Burgernomics.[8]

Special sauce

The name was popularized by a 1974 advertising campaign featuring a list of the ingredients in a Big Mac: "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – on a sesame seed bun."[9]

Big Mac Sauce is delivered to McDonald's restaurants in sealed canisters designed by Sealright, from which it is meant to be directly dispensed using a special calibrated "sauce gun" that dispenses a specified amount of the sauce for each pull of the trigger.[10] Its design is similar to a caulking gun.

In 2012, McDonald's executive chef Dan Coudreaut released a YouTube video revealing the recipe of the special sauce. It consists of store-bought mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish and yellow mustard whisked together with vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika.[11][12][13]

In 2018, McDonald's revamped the special sauce by removing potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, and calcium disodium EDTA.[7]

Packaging

The Big Mac, along with many other McDonald's products, was first served in a collapsible cardboard container that was changed to a "clamshell" style styrofoam container in the late 1970s. Styrofoam containers were phased out beginning in 1990, due to environmental concerns.[14] The product is now sold in another collapsible cardboard box.

Advertising

The earliest instances of McDonald's using advertising for the burger were mainly print ads, and a TV ad in which Hoyt Axton sings "The Ballad of Big Mac" which aired in 1969.

Two all-beef patties slogan
Big Mac button worn by Canadian crew members during the 1975 campaign.

The Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – on a sesame seed bun concept for the jingle was created by Keith Reinhard, Chairman Emeritus of DDB Worldwide, and his creative group at Needham Harper and Steers. Originally, the ingredients appeared as a one-word heading for a McDonald's ad developed for college newspapers. The words were then set to music created by Mark Vieha, who performed the original jingle. The first run of commercials ran only a year and a half, going off the air in 1976, but its popularity remained beyond its TV life. Subsequent to the jingle, McDonald's followed up with a promotion based on its customers spontaneously having a "Big Mac Attack".

In the United States during the original campaign many franchises ran promotions that awarded a free burger to customers who could recite the slogan within a specified time (usually two or three seconds). One example of its success was that the McDonald's operators in New York City ran out of Big Mac buns. McDonald's Australia emulated this promotion in the mid-1980s, and some Brazilian McDonald's around the same time (only offering a free glass of Coca-Cola instead), in the Portuguese-language version, which is "Dois hambúrgueres, alface, queijo, molho especial, cebola e picles num pão com gergelim".

In 2003, McDonald's revived the phrase. In an English-language ad from McDonald's international "i'm lovin' it" campaign, a rapper rapidly spouts off the trademark in the background music. Also in 2003, American Greetings and Carlton Cards released a Christmas ornament of a Big Mac, on which the slogan was both printed and played aloud by pulling on a string. Roy Bergold, National Advertising Manager at McDonald's, has a big hand in championing the original campaign and helping to bring it back.

In 2008 McDonald's Malaysia revived the phrase. The revival includes the original prize of a free Big Mac if the customer is able to recite the phrase in under four seconds. It was released in May, along with the promotional Mega Mac, which has four beef patties instead of two.[15]

1980s advertising

In the early 1980s, as a promotion, McDonald's staged an in-house rivalry between their two most popular products. Consumers were invited to decide "Which one will be number one? Chicken McNuggets or Big Mac sandwiches?" For each of either item that a customer bought, they received another of the same at half price. Later in the ad campaign, the second was offered for free. It was eventually announced that the Big Mac was "number one".

Ads in the 1980s and early 1990s featured the character Mac Tonight and a parody of the song Mack the Knife. The character was pulled after settlement of a lawsuit by the estate of late singer Bobby Darin, whose famous 1958 recording popularized the song.

2005 advertising

In 2005, McDonald's began offering product placement rewards to hip hop artists who namechecked the Big Mac in their music, giving US$5 to the artist for every time a song mentioning the hamburger was played on the radio.[16] This offer quickly spawned a satirical reference from hip hop artist Mad Skillz, who references the marketing ploy in his track "2005 Wrap Up" by stating "And I'm beefin' wit' Mickey D's man, y'all dead wrong, Talkin' 'bout payin' rappers to mention Big Macs in their song, We do rap from the heart, y'all better have some respect, Alright, Big Mac! Big Mac! Big Mac! Now where's my check?"

2019 EUIPO trademark revocation

McDonald's sued the Irish fast food chain Supermac's for trademark infringement and claimed the name would confuse consumers in European markets.[17] On 11 January 2019, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) ruled in Supermac's favor in what has been called a "David vs. Goliath" victory.[17] McDonald's submitted a copy of the Wikipedia article about the Big Mac as part of its evidence, but the court found the Wikipedia page was not acceptable as "independent evidence".[17][18]

Statistics in the United States

In 2007, Danya Proud, a McDonald's spokeswoman, said that in the United States alone, 560 million Big Macs are sold each year. It means that approximately 17 Big Macs are sold every second.[19][20]

Variants
  • The Mega Mac or Double Big Mac: four 1.6 oz (45.4 g) beef patties and an extra slice of cheese. Available in Canada, China, Egypt, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia (during promotional periods only), Turkey, Singapore, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand, and United Kingdom.[15] It was introduced to the United States in early 2020.[21] In Australia it was discontinued and replaced by the Grand Big Mac. The Double Big Mac is the biggest regular hamburger the chain produces and it has 680 calories.[22]
  • Big Big Mac: a Quarter Pounder–like product sold in Europe (Finland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Italy). Has been sold periodically in Sweden, there called "Grand Big Mac".[23]
  • The Denali Mac: made with two quarter pound patties. Named after Denali in Alaska, and sold only in that state.[24][25] Also known as the Bigger Big Mac as a limited-time offer product to celebrate the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
  • In Venezuela, the Big Mac is known as the Big Melt, substituting cheddar cheese sauce in place of slices of cheese.
  • In India, where consuming beef is illegal in most states, the Big Mac is known as the Maharaja Mac and was originally made with lamb instead of beef; however, along with the company's other items, it is now made from chicken.[26][27] A vegetarian option is also available, substituting corn patties in the place of beef.
  • The Chicken Big Mac is a Big Mac with two breaded chicken patties sold in Pakistan, Egypt, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and other countries as a promotional burger.[28][29][30]
  • The Giga Big Mac, is sold in Japan. It is a larger version of the Big Mac with three times the meat of a regular one.[31]
  • Little Mac or Mac Jr. is a reduction of the standard Big Mac which uses a two-piece bun and contains only one beef patty. It has been available as a limited-time promotion in the U.S. since 2017.[32]
  • Grand Mac uses larger patties, at 1⁄3 pound (150 g) combined. Available in the U.S. beginning in 2017 and was first made available overseas in the UK and Australia as the "Grand Big Mac" in 2018 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original Big Mac.[32]
  • Big Mac BLT is a standard Big Mac burger with the addition of bacon and tomato. Released in Australia and New Zealand as a promotional item in late 2017.[33]
  • Big Mac Bacon was introduced in selected markets in 2018, as a limited-time option. It is essentially a Big Mac with added bacon.[34]
  • A Mega Mac burger with a large Coke and fries in Malaysia
  • A Chicken Maharaja Mac in India
  • A Grand Big Mac (left) and Mac Jr. (right) alongside a regular Big Mac (center), released for a limited time in the UK as part of the 50th anniversary of the burger.

McDonaldland character
Main article: McDonaldland

In addition to the McDonald's signature hamburger, Big Mac was the name of a character, Officer Big Mac, in McDonaldland, the fictional world created as an advertising campaign for McDonald's. Officer Big Mac was similar to Mayor McCheese, except he was the chief of police, wearing a constable uniform and sporting a large Big Mac for a head.

Museum
The Big Mac Museum in 2014

On August 22, 2007, McDonald's opened the Big Mac Museum in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania to celebrate the Big Mac's 40th anniversary. The museum features the world's largest Big Mac statue (measuring 14 feet high and 12 feet wide) and has hundreds of historic artifacts and exhibits that celebrate the Big Mac.[35][36]

Some Uniontown residents were unhappy with the selected location;[37] a McDonald's spokesperson said that the decision was based on ease of highway access.[38]

Nutritional values per geographical location

The Big Mac is a geographically localized product. In the United States, the Big Mac has 550 kcal (2,300 kJ), 29 grams of fat and 25 grams of protein. In Australasia, the burger is slightly smaller with 493 kcal (2,060 kJ) and 26.9 grams of fat, but similar amounts of protein with 25.2 grams,[39] while the Japanese burger tops out the scales at 557 kcal and 30.5 grams of fat. Several Mcdonald's subsidiaries adapt the standard features of the Big Mac (from the USA) to regional requirements.[40]

Comparisons of the Big Mac standard nutritional values in different countries – Sodium values converted to their salt equivalents, rounded and in bold
Country Energy kcal Carbohydrates g Protein g Fat (total) g Dietary fiber g Salt equivalent mg Serving
size
(weight) g		 Reference
 Argentina4854024263.32005.ar
 Australia49335.325.226.92148201.au
 Austria49540272532300219.at
 Belgium4954027252300.be
 Bosnia and Herzegovina51041272632200.ba
 Brazil4914026263.82033.br
 Canada52045232832413209.ca
 Chile47840262442133.cl
 China520462626.cn
 Croatia51041272632200.hr
 Czech Republic5104127262200.cz
 Denmark510412726.132200.info
 Egypt5225228.235302234.eg
 Finland51041272632200.fi
 France5084227263.12300221.info
 Germany51041272632200221.de
 Greece49540272532300221.gr
 Hong Kong49743.126.424.22003.hk
 Hungary51041272632200.info
 Ireland49041282442100.ie
 Italy51042272632200.it
 Japan55745.225.530.52800.jp
 Lithuania5094227263.12300219.lt
 Malaysia4844626231825209.my
 Mexico48645222632228.mx
 Netherlands51041272632200.info
 New Zealand49436.826.425.92415202.nz
 Norway51041272632200.no
 Poland51041272632200.info
 Portugal5094227263.22300219.pt
 Romania51041272632200.info
 Russia49540272532300.info
 Serbia49340272532300.rs
 Singapore5224328263970.sg
 South Africa4963924.326.43.22433.za
 South Korea510262533213.kr
 Sweden50542262632300219.se
  Switzerland51041272632200.info
 Taiwan530452726.tw
 Turkey4804328222100.tr
 Ukraine509 4227262300.ua
 United Kingdom5084326253.62300.uk
 United States54047252832426215.us

See also

Similar products by other restaurant chains:

References
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Further reading
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