Alessandra Ajraldi

I’ve been a vegeterian for a while, so maybe I’m not the right person to write that kind of post, however I’ve always wonder what’s the difference between those two giants in the fast food industry that at least once everybody tried (more travelling to save money )!

Who has the better hamburger: McDonald’s or Burger King? Both of these well-known fast food restaurants have been in business for over 50 years. McDonald’s boasts over 31000 locations worldwide and still expanding. Burger King is in the process of adding to its 11,200 worldwide locations by expanding in Japan, Hong Kong and adding even Macau.

McDonald’s had over 21.6 billion dollars in revenue last year. Burger King had only about 10% of that with the sales totaling 2.06 billion dollars last year. Do these statistics reflect that maybe McDonald’s has the better hamburger?

Some people might say yes, but let’s take a closer look!

Checking both www.mcdonalds.com and www.bk.com you can see that are available what, maybe should interested us the most…  Nutritional Informations!

Comparing the hamburger size McDonald’s weighs slightly less; it is only 100g while Burger King’s weights 121g. Then, looking at the total fat content for each burger it results that McDonald’s hamburger has only 9g of total fat while Burger King’s has 12g, but taking in account the size difference the fat content is  reasonably comparable. It’s interesting also analyze the difference in the salt content. McDonald’s hamburger has 520g of salt, while Burger King’s hamburger has 560g of salt, but again thinking about the size difference in the end the salt content is the same. To complete the picture I checked the carbohydrate count in each hamburger. Burger King is the better choice for those interested in their carbohydrate intake. Burger King, while its hamburger weighs more than McDonald’s hamburger, has less carbohydrates only 30g per sandwich. McDonald’s hamburger has 31g of carbohydrates in it. After all these considarations we can conclude that when we compare the nutritional value of both McDonald’s and Burger King’s hamburgers there’s a really little difference!

But now let’s look at the factors that make these fast-food giants the top two burger chains in the world.

The Menu: What’s the first thing you think of when someone says McDonald’s or Burger King? Probably their signature sandwiches — the Big Mac and the Whopper — because they are what make the brands. There are two factors to look at here — taste and health.

As far as taste goes, my non-scientific point of view says that both sandwiches are surely tasty. I can say I prefer the Burger King’s hamburger with regard to meat. The hamburger is much more thick, giving the idea of being really meat and not just meat scraps as in the case of McDonald. About the bread Burger King’s  binds much less with the contents of the sandwich unlike the bread of McDonald, in whose sandwiches though I find there is a excess of lettuce. Also regarding french fries I absolutely prefer McDonald’s ones, more flavorful and less “frozen”.

Anyways this is just my opinion (and maybe of some other people) but last year Burger King proposed as a strategy of their Marketing campain an “Extreme comparative”, and not without controversy! The idea was to try a Whopper and a Big Mac to people who had never had the chance. Looking out for people in the most remote parts of the world. From that were born  a TV campaign with spots of 15 and 30 seconds, and a documentary, online at www.whoppervirgins.com (I recommend to whatch it!), which would highlights the ‘Virginity’ of the tasters and veracity of the shooting, which have been used no actors.