Background: McDonald's, aka Maccy D's, is the world's largest fast-food chain, serving around 69 million customers a day across more than 100 countries. Its CEO, Chris Kempczinski, has been building a social media presence to promote new menu items and big company announcements.

What happened: Earlier this year, Kempczinski posted a LinkedIn video announcing a new burger called the Big Arch. But when he taste-tested it, he took a tiny bite and described it in a very corporate way (aka the "product")... and the internet immediately turned the clip into a meme.  

What else: Rivals like Burger King and Wendy's piled in with parody posts, while McDonald's leaned into the joke too. The viral moment generated about 5.8 billion impressions in a single day, and early sales of the burger are reportedly beating expectations.    

What's the key learning?

💡Newsjacking is when a company jumps into a trending news story or viral moment and inserts its brand into the conversation. Instead of spending millions trying to create attention, brands can ride the wave of an existing viral moment.

💡In this case, Burger King and Wendy's quickly posted parody videos, with Burger King appearing in 68% of the online discussion around the clip. But then McDonald's actually newsjacked its own media story - posting a photo of the burger with the caption: “take a bite of our new product.”

💡McDonald's was able turn an PR-nightmare-video into billions of impressions and a surge in product awareness. So sometimes the internet laughing at you can still be very good for business.