McDonald's: Chicken Big Mac

The most powerful marketing question isn't 'buy this' — it's 'settle this.' McDonald's understood that launching a chicken variant of its most iconic sandwich wasn't really a product problem, it was a philosophy problem — one the internet would argue about for free if given the right stage. Rather than a traditional QSR launch playbook (coupons, TV spots, influencer taste tests), Wieden+Kennedy built the campaign around the unanswerable: is a Chicken Big Mac actually a Big Mac? By partnering with Kai Cenat — whose live streams operate as unscripted cultural town halls rather than polished content — McDonald's accessed an audience that viscerally rejects branded moments but will spend hours debating something genuinely interesting. The celebrity guests (Cena, Fanum, iCarly) weren't there to endorse the product; they were there to have a real argument on camera, with Cenat's unpredictable hosting keeping it from feeling scripted. The strategic sophistication is in the tension design: every participant who sides with 'yes, it's a Big Mac' or 'no, it isn't' is implicitly engaging with the product's identity and, by extension, wanting to taste it to form their own opinion. The debate mechanic turns the audience from viewers into prospective jurors. McDonald's didn't need to claim the Chicken Big Mac was great — it just needed to make America feel unqualified to have an opinion without trying one.