The Big Mac became one of McDonald’s best-known product brand names in 1967.
Jim Delligatti, a McDonald’s franchisee in the Pittsburgh area, created the sandwich as a larger hamburger with two beef patties, a middle bun layer, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and sauce. The product was introduced in the United States in 1967 and became nationally available the following year.
The name “Big Mac” was selected during a naming contest among McDonald’s employees. It replaced an earlier proposed name, “The Aristocrat,” which was considered less memorable and harder to market.
The sandwich became more than a menu item: it became a durable piece of McDonald’s branding. Its distinctive name, packaging, advertising, and signature sauce helped make it recognizable well beyond the restaurants themselves. The Big Mac Index later used the sandwich to compare purchasing power between currencies, creating another association with the product’s name.