These days, business leaders are encouraged to create and promote their personal brand. And while it’s difficult for anyone in business to develop one as strong and resonant as Elon Musk, Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett, executives can benefit from people within their own company as well as in the wider world on social media to get an idea of what they’re about, what they do in their jobs, and the personal beliefs that helped them get there.

This is likely what drove McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski to start his Instagram account in 2020, the year after he was named the fast food chain’s leader. The posts on his account often deal with leadership advice, recognizing employees and taste-testing McDonald’s menu items from around the world. Kempczinski, who calls himself “Chris K” in self-narrated videos, presents himself as approachable, supportive and knowledgeable about the McDonald’s brand.

Last month, however, his Instagram feed received the wrong kind of attention. The CEO posted himself taking what’s been pilloried as a half-hearted nibble out of the restaurant’s new Big Arch burger. And while the video has gone viral for all the wrong reasons, it begs the question of whether it’s actually bad publicity for the burger, McDonald’s or Kempczinski himself.

As AI technology is reshaping marketing as a whole, it’s time for those who are in the business to ask whether it’s also sidelining the humans and creative energy that has driven marketing through the ages. I talked to Columbia Business School Professor Rajeev Kohli about how the people in marketing can keep up with AI technology and assert the importance of humans in the field. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

This is the published version of Forbes’ CMO newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief marketing officers and other messaging-focused leaders. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.

One of the most important tenets of marketing food products: Make them look delicious. A viral video of McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski awkwardly eating the chain’s new Big Arch burger missed the mark. The video, posted on Instagram about a month ago, shows Kempczinski talking up the attributes of the “product” (the online peanut gallery has noted countless times that he should call it a “burger”) and ending with taking a “big bite”—which looks like a small nibble—and proclaiming with limited enthusiasm that it is “so good.” Reactions have mocked Kempczinski’s “unnatural” style, and many have said it looks like he hates McDonald’s food.

Rival chain Burger King jumped into the fracas this week, posting a TikTok video of U.S. and Canada President Tom Curtis taking a big bite of the restaurant’s Whopper in a restaurant kitchen.

While Kempczinski is getting a lot of attention for his Big Arch video, it’s not clear how the post has impacted sales of the burger—or the branding of the restaurant in general. Forbes contributor Kate Hardcastle writes this is a prime opportunity for McDonald’s to move the marketing conversation. After all, thanks to the video, the Big Arch is now being talked about more........

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