McDonald's Holds Contest to Celebrate its Big Mac

McDonald's USA launched a national casting call today inviting consumers to submit a video or audio remix of the popular Big Mac chant on MySpace.com/BigMacChant. The winning remix will be featured in a McDonald's Big Mac TV commercial that will air at the end of July. Semi-finalists will be selected by a panel of judges and the winner will be chosen through an online vote by July 22.

Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide, and his creative group at Needham Harper & Steers developed the famous "Twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun®" Big Mac jingle in 1974. Now, to continue the celebration of the sandwich's 40th anniversary, McDonald's is giving consumers a chance to submit their remixes of the chant.

"For 40 years, the Big Mac has been a familiar favorite not only to our guests in the United States, but around the world," says Neil Golden, chief marketing officer, McDonald's USA. "To share in the pride we have for our flagship sandwich, we're inviting our customers to join in the fun and add their own contemporary touch to the famous tongue-twister that celebrates the quality ingredients in our iconic sandwich."

Jim "MJ" Delligatti, one of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc's earliest franchisees, invented the Big Mac in his Uniontown, Pennsylvania, restaurant and introduced it for 45 cents in 1967. Consisting of two 100 percent all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame-seed bun, the Big Mac quickly gained popularity and was introduced on McDonald's national menu in 1968.

To kick-off the year-long anniversary celebration last August, Delligatti and his family officially opened the doors to the McDonald's Big Mac Museum Restaurant--"the most tasteful museum in the world"--in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. The combo museum/restaurant features the world's largest Big Mac statue (measuring 14 feet high and 12 feet wide), and hundreds of historic artifacts and high-tech exhibits that celebrate the Big Mac. The museum/restaurant is one of 18 McDonald's restaurants owned and operated by M&J Management, a three-generation family business and McDonald's franchise organization for 50 years.

Today, more than 500 million Big Mac sandwiches are sold each year in America alone. The sandwich is sold in more than 100 countries and, because of its global presence, inspired The Economist magazine's "Big Mac Index," an annual comparison of foreign currency values against the U.S. dollar.