This 1975 commercial begins with customers confidently attempting to describe a Big Mac. Most of them quickly stumble over the ingredients until the familiar jingle takes over: “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun.”
The Big Mac was created by Pennsylvania McDonald’s franchisee Jim Delligatti and first sold in 1967 for 45 cents. McDonald’s initially considered calling it the Aristocrat or Blue Ribbon Burger, but 21-year-old advertising secretary Esther Glickstein Rose suggested the much simpler name “Big Mac.” It became available nationwide in 1968.
The ingredient chant arrived in 1974 through a campaign developed by Keith Reinhard’s creative group at Needham Harper & Steers. The ingredient list had first appeared in college newspaper advertising before Mark Vieha turned the words into music and performed the original jingle.
The campaign became so popular that some McDonald’s restaurants offered a free Big Mac to customers who could recite the complete list correctly within just a few seconds. A longer version of the commercial also appeared during Super Bowl IX in 1975.
The commercial lasted only seconds, but it taught generations exactly what was inside a Big Mac. In 1986, The Economist even began using Big Mac prices around the world to compare the purchasing power of different currencies.
Can you still say the entire Big Mac chant without stumbling?