The
Big Mac is a sandwich sold by the international
fast-food chain McDonald's. Along with the
Quarter Pounder, it's one of McDonald's two signature products.
Product description
The Big Mac sandwich is a
hamburger consisting of two 1.6 oz (45.4 g)
beef patties,
iceberg lettuce,
American cheese,
pickles,
onion and a "special sauce" (similar to
Thousand Island dressing) served on a three part
sesame seed bun.
Variations
- The Mega Mac - four 1.6 oz (45.4 g) beef patties and an extra slice of cheese. Available in Ireland, Japan and Canada (as the Double Big Mac or Mega Big Mac). Discontinued in Australia and the United Kingdom
- Monster Mac - eight 1.6 oz (45.4 g) beef patties and extra cheese. Discontinued in Germany.
- the Mckinley-Mac - made with two quarter pound patties. Named after Mt. McKinley in Alaska, and sold only in that state.
- In India, where Hindu and Islamic Sharia dietary laws prohibit Hindus from eating beef and Muslims from eating pork, the Big Mac was renamed the Maharaja Mac and was originally made with lamb instead of beef; however, along with the company's other meat items it's now made from chicken.
In Saudi Arabia, the two meat patties are "100% grilled; inspected Halal; no additives, fillers, binders, preservatives, extenders, or flavor enhancers. Only pure forequarter and flank". There are also variations in other countries, especially to the condiments.
In Europe, larger burgers and buns were used to make a "Bigger Big Mac" as part of a limited promotion to celebrate the
World Cup 2006, held in
Germany. The burger was 40% bigger (compared to the weight of a normal Big Mac), and contained almost the same amount of saturated fat as the recommended daily allowance for an active adult male.
The
Big Mac is known worldwide and is often used as a symbol of
American capitalism.
The Economist has used it as a reference point to determine the cost of living in different countries — the
Big Mac Index — since it's so widely available and is comparable across markets. This index is sometimes referred to as
Burgernomics
On
19 November 2006, it was reported in
The Herald-Sun that some McDonald's stores in
Melbourne, Australia, had introduced
Halal meat for their Big Macs and some non-Muslim customers were furious they were not told their hamburger meat was
Halal. McDonald's Australia were reviewing if they were going to implement this nationwide.
History
The Big Mac was invented in 1967 in
Uniontown, Pennsylvania by Jim Delligatti, one of McDonald's
franchisees and an alumnus of
Michigan State University's School of Hospitality Business. Original names for the burger included "Aristocrat" & "Blue Ribbon Burger", but the actual name "Big Mac" was created by Esther Glickstein Rose, a then 21 year old Advertising Secretary who worked at McDonald's Corporate office in Chicago. Customer response to the Big Mac was so good that it rolled-out nationally in 1968. According to a famous advertising jingle, it consists of
"two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun", though the most distinctive feature is a middle layer of bread
("club") used to stabilize contents and prevent spillage.
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. 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?"
Burger King made a competing product called the
Big King (or "Big K") burger which had similar ingredients and taste to a Big Mac.
Hardee's made a similar product called the Boss Burger complete with Boss Sauce in the mid 1990s.
McDonaldland character
In addition to the McDonald's signature hamburger, Big Mac was the name of a character in
McDonaldland, the fictional world created as an advertising campaign for McDonald's. 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.
Big Mac Museum
A combination McDonald's restaurant/Big Mac Museum is scheduled to open in
North Huntingdon Township, Pennsylvania, in August 2007, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the invention of Big Mac.
On
August 23,
2007, Jim "MJ" Delligatti, 89, opened the doors to the McDonald's Big Mac Museum Restaurant in North Huntingdon, Pa., at 9061 Route 30, where the world's largest Big Mac statue (14 feet high by 12 feet wide) statue stands. Today, it's sold in over 100 countries, with more than 550 million Big Mac sandwiches sold yearly in America, while
Japan sells 150 million per year. 80 percent of McDonald's 13,700 U.S. restaurants are independently owned and operated by local franchisees.
Two all beef patties Slogan
"Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun." is a
trademarked slogan first used by McDonald's in 1975. The saying has remained popular even though it isn't in official use by McDonald's. Although shown here properly punctuated, it was spoken rapidly in ads as a single word, and trademarked as such.
The concept for the jingle was created by Charles Rosenberg, Creative Supervisor of the Dan Nichols team at Needham, Harper and Steers, Chicago. 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. Charlie's advertising concept was to purposely turn the ingredients into a tongue twister. The jingle first appeared in a TV commercial titled "In a Word" developed by Dan and the advertising agency team. 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.
Many franchisees in the United States ran promotions during the original campaign 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 actually 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 version, which goes as "Dois hamburgueres, alface, queijo, molho especial, cebola e pickles num pão com gergelim"
Roy Bergold, National Advertising Manager at McDonald's, has a big hand in championing the original campaign and helping to bring it back.
In one
Spongebob Squarepants episode, Spongebob recites a variation of the slogan to describe a Krabby patty.
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.
In the 2004 documentary
Super Size Me, several women were interviewed. None of them could correctly recite the
Pledge of Allegiance, but could accurately recite the slogan, to their embarrassment. In the
Simpsons episode
Rosebud,
Homer Simpson fantasizes about the phrase.
Late comedian
Mitch Hedberg referenced the slogan in a bit about what would happen when the world lost the sesame seed. "
They would have to change that slogan, you know. 'Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a.....bun.'"
Nutritional values
In the United States, the Big Mac has 540 calories (2,340 kJ), 47 grams of carbohydrates and 25 grams of protein. In Australia, however, the burger is smaller with 480 calories (2,010 kJ), 36.2 grams carbohydrate, but similar amounts of protein with 25.3 grams, while the Mexican burger tops out the scales at 600 calories and 33 grams of fat.
Comparisons of the Big Mac standard nutritional values in different countries (% = % of recommended daily allowance)>
| Country |
Calories |
Carbohydrate |
Protein |
Total fat |
Dietary fiber |
Salt |
Serving
size
(weight) |
Reference |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| align="left" |
|
36.2g |
25.3g |
24.9g |
|
800mg |
201g |
.au |
| align="left" |
|
41g (14%) |
25g (33%) |
27g (49%) |
3.5g (14%) |
1023mg (43%) |
|
.br |
| align="left" |
|
44g (15%) |
24g |
29g (45%) |
3g (12%) |
1020mg (43%) |
208g |
.ca |
| align="left" |
|
43g |
27.1g |
24.1g |
|
|
219g |
.dk |
| align="left" |
|
44g |
26.7g |
22.9g |
5.9g |
2200mg |
|
.uk |
| align="left" |
|
44g |
26g |
25g |
|
|
|
.de |
| align="left" |
|
42.5g |
27g |
24g |
5g |
2000mg |
|
.gr |
| align="left" |
|
38.9g |
26.2g |
25.8g |
4.2g |
900mg |
|
.fr |
| align="left" |
|
43g |
27g |
25g |
4g |
|
|
.it |
| align="left" |
|
42.7g |
26.1g |
25.8g |
2g |
864mg |
216g |
.jp |
| align="left" |
|
46g (14%) |
27g (45%) |
29g (57%) |
|
750mg (22%) |
219g |
.kr |
| align="left" |
|
46g |
26g |
23g |
|
730mg |
209g |
.my |
| align="left" |
|
50g |
25g |
33g |
4g |
1050mg |
219g |
.mx |
| align="left" |
|
33.9g |
24g |
25.4g |
|
1020mg |
195g |
.nz |
| align="left" |
|
40g |
27g |
25g |
3g |
|
|
.ru |
| align="left" |
|
40g |
27g |
25g |
3g |
2300mg |
|
.info |
| align="left" |
|
45g (15%) |
25g (45%) |
29g (45%) |
3g (12%) |
1040mg (43%) |
214g |
.com |
External results
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|
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