Someone tell me who willed Fast Food CEO Mukbang into existence.
Why did Wendy’s U.S. President Pete Suerken go on Xitter to very pointedly eat a Wendy’s hamburger (while very specifically extolling its quality of flat, square beef, like, dude, they’re fine) and fries (dipping them into a Frosty, which is correct)?
A better question might be, Why did McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski appear to struggle with the task of eating a hamburger, taking the tiniest bite of McDonald’s new Big Arch burger in their recent online taste-test? Chris, have you hamburgered before? Or is the quality of your own burger that much of a turnoff?
Regardless, the outcome was a series of responses from assorted fast food executives, and they didn’t just come for their competitors — they came for them quick. Numerous someones watched that video and their vision went all computery like Terminator. I’m the kind of petty person who loves a touch of brand-on-brand violence, when it’s done well. So here are three other occasions when it has, in fact, been done well.
Wyze isn’t going to try to surveil your neighbors.
One of the lowlights of the 2026 Superb Owl’s unintentionally creepy ad offerings was Ring’s ad that was supposed to celebrate its Search Party feature, locating a lost dog through the wonders of unwitting neighborhood surveillance. Ring was, at the time, partnered with Flock, a company that shares data with law enforcement agencies, turning their Search Party into more of a Sheriff’s Posse.
Ring was pretty quick to end the partnership, but the (well-earned) reputational damage had been done, and Wyze came back just three days later with their own brutal ad parody.
Samsung doesn’t want to destroy your tools of creativity.
Apple got a lot of heat when it released (and then quickly unreleased) an ad for its new, improved iPad Pro. What they wanted to do was illustrate how all the tools of creativity — for art, for music, for gaming — have been incorporated into this new version of their thinner-than-ever device. What they actually did was crush those tools into nothingness in a disturbing shower of piano splinters and a Shining-eque gush of paint, replacing it with the new digital device that will do it all.
And that’s why Samsung was quickly on the ball, picking through the rubble for a quiet clapback barely a week later.
Aviator Gin clowns on the Peloton Wife.
This classic from 2020 is more of a subtle hit, targeting Peloton’s bleak-eyed wife dutifully using the exercise bike her husband bought her for Christmas. It’s two friends taking said wife out for a drink (of Aviator gin, of course), celebrating… whatever has caused her to not be subject to her husband’s fitness implications anymore. Using the exact same actress is what elevates it above a minor gag, which is no less than you might expect from Ryan Reynolds and his Maximum Effort creative agency.
(How pissed was Peloton about the snark? Not enough that they didn’t come to him for another quick-response ad after Big got Pelotonned to death on And Just Like That… Dude moves quick.)
They woke up and chose violence,
and I’m here for it. I am, myself, a salty bitch. But I’m salty in the manner of a French fry dipped in a chocolate Frosty, meaning I’m also cool and sweet and delicious. So I appreciate brand snarkbacks that are also salty, cool, sweet, and extremely delicious, and I appreciate creatives who see every questionable brand move as not just a cautionary tale but an opportunity. And maybe a target.
And now I want fries and a Frosty.