"Big Mac" news and stories

What's downing a million Big Macs when there's a pot o' gold at the end of the burger rainbow? How about 2.6 million?

That's how many you would need to eat-2,617,371 sandwiches-to win the $25,000 cash prize in McDonald's Monopoly promotion at odds of 1 in 150,622,625, according to a calculator made by the creators of Eat With a Spork, Consumerist reported.

That's a lot of Big Macs. Maybe even 999,900 more than you planned on eating in a lifetime.

Eat With a Spork's calculator also tells you the nutritional damage you'd do trying to win it big in McDonald's Monopoly.

McDonald's might be the home of a smiling clown and friendly "I'm lovin' it" ads, but when it comes to defending their trademarks, they're notoriously ruthless.

Erin Wade and Allison Arevalo, friends and small business owners in Oakland, CA, recently discovered it's unwise to tread on anything the burger giant considers a trademark. The duo planned to name their restaurant -- a neighborhood joint featuring macaroni and cheese made from artisanal cheeses and local ingredients -- Little Mac. But last week, corporate counsel for the Golden Arches nixed the name, claiming that the word "mac" is the intellectual property of McDonalds.

Wade says they were stunned: "We were like, wait a minute, we're a mac and cheese shop and we can't use the word 'mac' at all?"

A Paris McDonald's. Photo: Let Ideas Compete/flickr

Mona Lisa, meet Le Big Mac.

Lovers of French culture and art snobs are buzzing with disapproval after McDonald's confirmed its plans to open a restaurant within the Louvre in Paris, according to the Daily Telegraph.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary in France, McDonald's will open its 1,142nd French restaurant a few yards away from the iconic art museum in Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping center within the Louvre complex.

"I'm not against eating in a museum but McDonald's is hardly the height of gastronomy," Didier Rykner, head of the Art Tribune Web site told the Telegraph. "Today McDonald's, tomorrow low-cost clothes shops."

Are you a franchise fanatic? A connoisseur of combo meals? Take our fast food quiz and test your knowledge of burgers and beyond.

Do you remember the old McDonald's commercials for the Big Mac? They had that chant/rap about the special sauce and all that. Well, Micky D's wants to update that marketing campaign and they need your help.

As reported on Fast Food Critic, McDonald's wants you to enter a contest updating the Big Mac chant. You still have to use the special sauce, pickles, lettuce, etc, but they have all kinds of beats and samples you can use at their MySpace page. You can also get all the rules and more info there, too.

Just send in a video or audio tape of your remix, and be chosen by a panel of judges to be a semi-finalist, and your chant will be voted on by the public on July 22. The commercial will then air by the end of July.