Jason Harper of Boynton Beach, Florida, selected from more than 1,000 entrants in the Big Mac Chant-Off online consumer casting call, will soon have his remix featured in a national McDonald’s TV commercial, scheduled to air at the end of July.
Harper, 29, submitted his winning rendition of the popular Big Mac Chant “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun” through a multi-platform online casting call that launched on www.MySpace.com/BigMacChant on June 16. Harper’s entry garnered 47 percent of the more than 12,000 fan votes online.
“Although my remix is simple, it’s very memorable. I had a vision of music on a grand scale like a whole stadium of people chanting in unison,” Harper says, a former quality assurance manager who left his job in January to pursue music full time. “This is an unbelievable opportunity, and I’m so happy and grateful that my remix was chosen to be featured in a national McDonald’s TV commercial. I’m lovin’ it!”
McDonald’s invited customers to participate in its “Big Mac Chant-Off,” which challenged participants to add a fresh spin to the company’s famous Big Mac jingle, originally introduced in 1974. Contestants were asked to upload submissions in one of five musical genres, including country, rock, hip-hop, R & B, or Latino to the Web site. A select panel of judges in the music and recording industry narrowed the entries down to five finalists, with fans deciding the winner.
“We have seen a tremendous response from customers who share the same enthusiasm we have for our signature Big Mac,” says Neil Golden, chief marketing officer, McDonald’s USA. “This national casting call produced many fun, innovative renditions of the Big Mac Chant, and we are excited to have this fresh music twist to add to our national advertising.”
The national casting call rounds out the year-long anniversary celebration of the sandwich, which began last August with the opening of the McDonald’s Big Mac Museum Restaurant in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.
Jim “MJ” Delligatti, one of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc’s earliest franchisees, invented the Big Mac sandwich in his Uniontown, Pennsylvania, restaurant and introduced it for 45 cents in 1967. The Big Mac quickly gained popularity and was introduced on McDonald’s national menu in 1968.
Today, McDonald’s sells more than 500 million Big Mac sandwiches each year in America alone. The sandwich is served in more than 100 countries. As part of McDonald’s Beijing Olympic Games activities, the company will host a Big Mac building skills competition and media event on August 7 to celebrate the chain’s top-performing restaurant employees from around the world.
