Posted by McDonald's on Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Looks like McDonald's isn't lovin' Burger King's latest proposal.
Hours after the fast-food giant asked its rival to temporarily join forces in honor of Peace Day, McDonald's has responded to Burger King's McWhopper pitch and nixed the joint hamburger venture.
"Dear Burger King: Inspiration for a good cause... great idea. We love the intention but think our two brands could do something bigger to make a difference," the post read. "We commit to raise awareness worldwide, perhaps you'll join us in a meaningful global effort?
"And every day, let's acknowledge that between us there is simply a friendly business competition and certainly not the unequaled circumstances of the real pain and suffering of war," the statement, which was signed by "Steve, McDonald's CEO," continued, adding, "We'll be in touch...P.S. A simple phone call will do next time."
In honor of the upcoming celebration of world peace (which is scheduled to take place on September 21), Burger King proposed opening a pop-up store in a parking lot between two restaurants in Atlanta, halfway between Burger King's headquarters in Miami and McDonald's headquarters in Chicago.
Burger King used a number of marketing techniques to bring their proposal to the public's attention, including a YouTube video, a Tumblr blog and even took out full-page ads in The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune.
"Our invitation might be unexpected, but it's 100 percent sincere," Burger King wrote in the Tumblr post. "Burger King genuinely wants to unite with McDonald's on Sept. 21, 2015, to prepare and serve the McWhopper and get the world talking about Peace Day. Naturally we'll only proceed if you're on board, so we created this site to help you better understand our proposal and realize the potential."
While Burger King has yet to respond to McDonald's message, a number of Facebook users do not seem to be too pleased with McDonald's remarks.
"McDonald's wants to be a buzzkill and instead try to be all righteous with some phantom plan to raise global awareness," one commenter wrote while another added, "Wow McDonald's... what a shame. A simple gesture of good faith turned down so passively aggressively."
What do you think of McDonald's response? Tell us in the comments.