Here’s five kinda wily things about this video, which shows us that the sauce on the Big Mac is not a secret and is, in fact, easy to make at home.
1. That executive chef looks like the nicest guy in the world. A nice guy like that would never feed Canada (or visitors from America) anything but the most wholesome of concoctions.
2. The whole thing feels like “pulling the curtain back,” answering presumably actual fan’s questions with what seems like the utmost honesty—which makes McDonald’s look like they have nothing to hide. Which I guess they don’t.
3. By prepping the Big Mac sauce like a food network show, they make that goo seem rawther gourmay.
4. And yet by taking off his chef’s uniform and whistling the classic “dum de dum de de” time-killing tune waiting for the buns to toast, the video makes the whole scene seem totes cazh. (Or however you’d spell the first syllable of ‘casual,’ which I’m realizing I’m really not sure what to do about that.)
5. Paired with the earlier “behind the scenes” photo shoot confessional-ish video, this public relations stuff is making McDonald’s an internet sensation, which if you complain that we’re all being duped you end up looking kind of like a priggish killjoy. These things are not really secrets, or surprises. And still, they get all kinds of credit for the appearance of transparency.
I do love imagining the America McDonald’s management team calling emergency huddles in the main conference room to talk about potential damage control every time their kooky associates to the north release a new fake confessional…
