Is McDonald’s Trolling Burger King with its Pro-Farmer Ads?

There’s definitely a strong possibility that McDonald’s is trolling Burger King with its latest round of pro-farmer television commercials. And I’m here for it.

Burger King angered farmers, scientists, and vegans over the summer when it debuted its Cows Menu commercial. The advertisement pointed to cows as a major contributor of climate change (not exactly true…). BK’s solution? Feed cows lemongrass. In some very preliminary research, lemongrass may decrease a cow’s methane emissions.

The social media backlash was swift. Farmers were upset that BK made them sound like sinister polluters. Scientists blasted BK for running with research that wasn’t ready for prime time. And vegans were mad BK was still selling beef (I mean, what did you expect?).

BK eventually relented, apologized, and made amends. Its executives met with Farm Babe to tour some Iowa farms and learn about agriculture. And the awful commercial was edited.

But the fast-food wars are fierce. McDonald’s is now running pro-farmer commercials. Farmers Grow Communities is increasingly popping up during our favorite shows’ commercial breaks. And I’ve even caught a follow-up ad.

So is McDonald’s trolling BK? Maybe. McDonald’s has launched an entire campaign to support farmers. It recognizes that farmers are an important part of their supply chain, and farm communities are struggling right now. So it wants to help.

But I can’t help but think–and hope?–that McDonald’s is trolling BK after the latter’s disastrous cow-menu endeavor earlier this year. I’d like to think the pro-farmer voices on social media have enough sway to make these gigantic companies take notice. So I’m going with it until someone proves otherwise.