| McDonald's Big Mac | |
| Nutritional value per serving | |
|---|---|
| Serving size | 1 sandwich |
| Energy | 540 kcal (2,300 kJ) |
| Carbohydrates | 47 g (16%) |
| - Sugars | 8 g |
| - Dietary fiber | 3 g (14%) |
| Fat | 30 g (47%) |
| - saturated | 10 g (52%) |
| Protein | 25 g (45%) |
| Vitamin A | 120 IU |
| Vitamin C | 2 mg (2%) |
| Calcium | 250 mg (25%) |
| Iron | 2 mg (15%) |
| Sodium | 1010 mg (67%) |
| Energy from fat | 270 kcal (1,100 kJ) |
| Cholesterol | 80 mg (26%) |
| Ingredients | Beef, "special sauce", lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a bun topped with sesame seeds |
| Values may be different outside US market. Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: McDonald's |
|
The Big Mac (introduced in Pennsylvania in 1967 and nationwide in 1968) is a hamburger sold by McDonald's, an international fast food restaurant chain. It is one of the company's signature products. It consists of two 1.6 oz (45.4 g) beef patties, special "Mac" sauce (a relish variant[1]), iceberg lettuce, Cheddar-blend Cheese, pickles, and onions, served in a three part sesame seed bun.
Contents |
The Big Mac was created by Jim Delligatti, one of Ray Kroc's earliest franchisees, who was operating several restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. The Big Mac first debuted at Delligatti's Uniontown, Pennsylvania restaurant in 1967 at a selling price of 45 cents.[2] It was designed to compete with a similar Big Boy sandwich. The sandwich was so popular that it was added to the menu of all U.S. restaurants in 1968.[2] One of its most distinctive features is a middle slice of bread ("club" layer) used to stabilize contents and prevent spillage.
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 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.[3]
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, and onions on a sesame seed bun."
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.[4] Its design is similar to a caulking gun.
The earliest instances of McDonald's utilizing advertising for the sandwich were mainly print ads, and a TV ad where Hoyt Axton sings "The Ballad Of Big Mac" which aired in 1969.
The Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun 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. Rosenberg'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. Subsequent to the jingle, McDonald's followed up with a promotion based on its customers spontaneously having a "Big Mac Attack".
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 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 hambúrgueres, alface, queijo, molho especial, cebola e picles num pão com gergelim".
The slogan soon led to a shaggy dog joke that had as its punchline "two obese Patties, Special Ross, Lester Cheese, picking bunions on a Sesame Street bus".[5]
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, the phrase was revived by McDonald's Malaysia. The revival includes the original prize of a free Big Mac if the customer is able to recite the phrase in under four seconds. This was released in May, along with the promotional Mega Mac, which has four beef patties rather than the standard two.[6]
In the early 1980s, as a promotional, McDonalds 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 every one of either 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 Big Mac was "number one".
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.[7] 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?"
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.
In 1999 in the United Kingdom, three Court of Appeal judges ruled that a diet consisting of high-fat McDonald's products may lead to heart disease.[12]
In the United States, the Big Mac has 540 kcal (2,340 kJ), 29 grams of fat and 25 grams of protein. In Australia, the burger is slightly smaller with 493 kcal (2,060 kJ) and 26.9 grams of fat, but similar amounts of protein with 25.1 grams,[13] while the Mexican burger tops out the scales at 600 kcal and 33 grams of fat.
| Country | Energy | Carbohydrates | Protein | Fat (total)' | Dietary fiber | Sodium, Salt | Serving size (weight) |
Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | 495 kcal | 42g (14%) | 24g (32%) | 26g (47%) | 2.5g (10%) | 1083 mg (45%) | 202g | .ar |
| Australia | 493 kcal | 35.1g (11%) | 25.1g (50%) | 26.9g (38%) | 958 mg (42%) | [13] | ||
| Belgium | 495 kcal | 40g (15%) | 27g (36%) | 25g (37%) | 3g (12%) | 1023 mg (43%), 2300 mg (46%) | [1] | |
| Brazil | 504 kcal | 41g (14%) | 25g (33%) | 27g (49%) | 3.5g (14%) | 1023 mg (43%) | .br | |
| Canada | 540 kcal | 44g (15%) | 24g | 29g (45%) | 3g (12%) | 1020 mg (43%) | 209g | .ca |
| Chile | 555 kcal | 57g | 27g | 28g | 1098 mg | .cl | ||
| Croatia | 495 kcal | 40g (15%) | 27g (36%) | 25g (37%) | 3g (12%) | 2300 mg (46%) | 219g | .hr |
| Czech Republic | 495 kcal (25%) | 40g (15%) | 27g (36%) | 25g (37%) | 3g (12%) | 2300 mg (46%) | 219g | .cz |
| Denmark | 497 kcal | 43g | 27.1g | 24.1g | 219g | .dk | ||
| Egypt | 522 kcal | 28.235g | 25.911g | .eg | ||||
| Finland | 495 kcal | 40g | 27g | 25g | 3g | 2300 mg | 219g | .fi |
| France | 492 kcal | 38.9g | 26.2g | 25.8g | 4.2g | 900 mg, 2300 mg | .fr | |
| Germany | 495 kcal | 40g | 27g | 25g | 3g | 2300 mg | 221g | .de |
| Greece | 490 kcal | 42.5g | 27g | 24g | 5g | 2000 mg | .gr | |
| Hong Kong | 510 kcal | 39g | 25g | 28g | 870 mg | .hk | ||
| Hungary | 495 kcal (25%) | 40g (15%) | 27g (36%) | 25g (37%) | 3g (12%) | 2300 mg (46%) | .hu | |
| Italy | 505 kcal | 43g | 27g | 25g | 4g | .it | ||
| Japan | 555 kcal | 45.4g | 25.4g | 30.2g | 2g | .jp | ||
| Malaysia | 484 kcal | 46g | 26g | 23g | 730 mg | 209g | .my | |
| Mexico | 600 kcal | 50g | 25g | 33g | 4g | 1050 mg | 219g | .mx |
| Netherlands | 495 kcal | 40g | 27g | 25g | 3g | 2300 mg | .info | |
| New Zealand | 491 kcal (24%) | 35.8 g (12%) | 26.3 g (53%) | 26.0 g (37%) | 1080 mg (47%) | 202 g | .nz | |
| Norway | 495 kcal (25%) | 40g (15%) | 27g (36%) | 25g (37%) | 3g (12%) | 2300 mg (46%) | .no | |
| Poland | 495 kcal | 40g | 27g | 25g | 3g | 2300 mg | .pl | |
| Romania | 495 kcal | 40g | 27g | 25g | 3g | 2300 mg | .ro | |
| Russia | 495 kcal | 40g | 27g | 25g | 3g | .ru | ||
| Serbia | 493 kcal (25%) | 40g (15%) | 27g (36%) | 25g (37%) | 3g (12%) | 2300 mg (46%) | 219g | .rs |
| South Africa | 559 kcal | 49.3g | 27.7g | 24.89g | 4.6g | 801.98 mg | .za | |
| South Korea | 535 kcal | 46g (14%) | 27g (45%) | 29g (57%) | 750 mg (22%) | 219g | .kr | |
| Sweden | 500 kcal | 42g | 26g | 26g | 3g | 2400 mg | 219g | .se |
| Switzerland | 495 kcal | 40g | 27g | 25g | 3g | 2300 mg | .info | |
| Turkey | 480 kcal | 43g | 28g | 22g | 840mg | .com.tr | ||
| United Kingdom | 490 kcal (25%) | 41 g (15%) | 28 g (37%) | 24 g (36%) | 4 g (16%) | 2100 mg (42%) | .uk | |
| United States | 540 kcal (27%) | 45 g (15%) | 25 g (45%) | 29 g (45%) | 3 g (13%) | 1040 mg (43%) | 214 g | .us |
Similar products by other fast food chains:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
