McDonald's set out to create a new sandwich that follows their formula. Instead of having 2 beef patties, the Chick Mac has 2 white chicken patties that are breaded in the same breading as the McNuggets. Now McDonald's has addressed consumer complaints with this sandwich. You'll often hear people complain about there being not enough sauce on the Big Mac. The Chick Mac has an ENTIRE OUNCE of secret sauce on it. The chicken is reported to be crispy and is complimented well by sauce, lettuce, pickle, and cheese. Some say that they prefer the Chick Mac to the OG Big Mac. But with all the extra sauce the sandwich is a bit messy.
McDonald's value proposition today is not what it was when the first restaurant opened. Originally they offered quality food, made to order, and made quickly while being priced at a great value. Their original menu was small and sweet which made it easy to pick options. Today McDonald's value proposition is selling relatively expensive food with a menu that has way too many options. They made my point by releasing the Chick Mac, where they now have 3 different chicken patties with 3 different types of breading. There's the Chick Mac patty, McChicken patty, and McCrispy patty. They have opened themselves up to making mistakes on orders and making customers take longer to figure out what they want. Despite what you think, people don't want options. Take Chick-fil-A for example, a much more successful restaurant chain, they have 8 items on their entree menu, and McDonald's has 20 items on their entree menu.
To promote the new sandwich, McDonald's used the exterior of the Las Vegas Sphere to play the commercial for the Chick Mac. They also recruited popular Twitch streamer Kai Cenat to star in the Chick Mac commercial. Showing off his Lamborghini Urus in the ad and displaying a generated live chat to hype up the sandwich. Kai argues with a choir of people who appear in his backseat that the Chicken Big Mac is not a Big Mac. It was semi-entertaining and probably led to sandwich sales for his viewers for the meme.
This isn't the first time that a company has had an influencer feature in a commercial. It harkens back to the days when commercials starred celebrities like Samuel L. Jackson in the Capital One commercial. Nowadays however I don't think that celebrity or influencer cameos is the best way to appeal to an audience. It feels lazy to pay someone to endorse your product, especially when it's someone like a YouTuber or Twitch streamer. It feels more like they are selling out and belittling their audience than if an actor were to do an ad.
The commercial didn't have any substance. It felt like what would've been scrapped as an idea in the late '00s. Instead of showing off their new product, the majority of the ad is a bit that isn't even funny. They could've created an ad that was educational like we have learned is a much better way of selling something. They could've shown the audience with a visual and a voice-over telling them that there's an ENTIRE OUNCE of sauce on the sandwich. That it's high in protein. Or appealing to the consumers by saying “If you love the Big Mac you'll love this! It's the classic that you love with a new refreshing tasty twist". But instead, they made an ad that feels out of touch and doesn't tell us anything about the product.
I have learned two things from this experience. McDonald's needs to read our textbook, and that McDonald's has an insane 20 items on their entree menu.
Sources:
People.com Article https://people.com/mcdonalds-chicken-big-mac-review-we-tried-it-8726082
Commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6QqicirKBA
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