Big Mac turns 50, tries to stay relevant
NEW YORK — McDonald’s is fighting to hold onto customers as the Big Mac turns 50, but it isn’t changing the makings of its most famous burger.
The company is celebrating the 1968 national launch of the double-decker sandwich whose ingredients of “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and a sesame seed bun” were seared into American memories by a TV jingle. But the milestone comes as the company reduces its number of U.S. stores. McDonald’s said last week that customers are visiting less often. Other trendy burger options are reaching into the heartland.
The milestone for the Big Mac shows how much McDonald’s and the rest of fast food have evolved around it.
As with many of its popular and long-lasting menu items, the idea for the Big Mac came from a franchisee.
In 1967, Michael James “Jim” Delligatti lobbied the company to let him test the burger at his Pittsburgh restaurants. Later, he acknowledged the Big Mac’s similarity to a popular sandwich sold by the Big Boy chain.
McDonald’s agreed to let The Big Mac was created by a McDonald’s franchisee in Pittsburgh. Delligatti sell the sandwich at a single location, on the condition that he use the company’s standard bun. It didn’t work. Delligatti tried a bigger sesame seed bun, and the burger soon lifted sales by more than 12 percent.
The Big Mac was added to the national menu in 1968.
Messing with a signature menu item can be taboo, but keeping the Big Mac unchanged comes with its own risks. Newer chains such as Shake Shack and Five Guys offer burgers that can make the Big Mac seem outdated. Even White Castle is modernizing, recently adding plant-based “Impossible Burger” sliders at some locations.
A McDonald’s franchisee fretted in 2016 that only 1 in 5 millennials has tried the Big Mac. The Big Mac had “gotten less relevant,” the franchisee wrote in a memo, according to the Wall Street Journal.
McDonald’s then ran promotions designed to introduce the Big Mac to more people. That kind of periodic campaign should help keep the Big Mac relevant for years to come, said Mike Delligatti, the son of the Big Mac inventor, who died last year.
“What iconic sandwich do you know that can beat the Big Mac as far as longevity?” said Delligatti, himself a McDonald’s franchisee.