Like oil and water or Taylor and Katy, Burger King and Ronald McDonald are two entities that don't play well together.
But on Wednesday morning, Burger King made an announcement that could signal a thaw in the decades-long cold war between the fast food giants.
Burger King ran full-page ads in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune requesting that McDonald's get on board with their proposal to combine the two restaurants, if only for one day and at one location, to sell a hybrid of their signature burgers.
Burger King says they want to operate a restaurant in Atlanta - corporate neutral ground as BK is headquartered in Florida and McD's in Illinois - staffed by workers from both chains on September 21. Sales proceeds would go to Peace One Day, a nonprofit that raises awareness of the U.N.'s International Day of Peace. The proposed venture's highlight would be a burger called the McWhopper. Burger King provided renderings of what food containers and employee uniforms might look like - but offered only a vague glimpse of the mythical McWhopper.
Of course, many questions are unanswered: How do you combine a burger that's known for having one large, flat, tasteless patty with a burger that's known for having two small, flat, tasteless patties? Will it be topped with the Big Mac's special sauce or the Whopper's ketchup-mayo slurry? Why did Burger King make the proposal in newspapers rather than contacting the McDonald's marketing team? Can't two companies with hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars in profits just donate money to charity of their own accord?
None of this really matters if McDonald's isn't willing to get on board. And according to a statement by McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook, the Golden Arches is a little lukewarm on the whole initiative. Easterbrook also managed to throw some shade on BK's reference to "burger wars."
Presumably, a Ronald McDonald/Burger King regal clown mashup mascot is off the table as well.
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