--- title: Burger King Trolls McDonalds With 'I'm Loving It' Video description: Ronald McDonald may be recovering from third-degree burns after Burger King's latest stunt canonical: https://time.com/4972183/burger-king-troll-mcdonalds-clowns/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-06T14:24:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:49.720Z og:title: Burger King Rides Clown Fear Wave to Troll McDonald's og:description: This is brutal og:url: https://time.com/4972183/burger-king-troll-mcdonalds-clowns/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04e863fe0947b2ce/6988e0d8e76ad21c5762f746/never.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: never og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Burger King Rides Clown Fear Wave to Troll McDonald's twitter:description: This is brutal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04e863fe0947b2ce/6988e0d8e76ad21c5762f746/never.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Burger King Rides Clown Fear Wave to Brutally Troll McDonald's by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Oct 6, 2017 2:24 PM UTC  by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Oct 6, 2017 2:24 PM UTC [Ronald McDonald](http://time.com/4453092/mcdonalds-rio-olympic-village-2016-olympics/) may be recovering from third-degree burns after [Burger King’s](http://time.com/4443210/burger-kings-whopperrito-burger-burrito/) latest stunt. The home of the Whopper has made an annual tradition out of [trolling](http://time.com/4817897/wendys-texas-sign-war-pure-water-ice/) and pranking its sworn enemy with the golden arches. This year did not disappoint. Germany’s Burger King released a funny smear campaign video ad about McDonald’s that played before the Stephen King clown killer horror flick _It_ for movie theater audiences Wednesday. In an effort to villainize McDonald’s, they simply turned that infamous McDonald’s “I’m loving it” phrase into “I’m loving IT.” The tongue-in-cheek attack ad ends with an ominous warning. “The moral is: never trust a clown,” referencing the fast food rival’s mascot. The closer: “Burger King.” Wherever your fast food loyalty lies, Burger King has this art form down. Last year, the fast food chain completely disguised their own New York City location as a [McDonald’s “ghost”](http://time.com/4547759/burger-king-mcdonalds-ghost-costume/) with a sign that read “BOOOO! Just kidding. We flame grill our burgers. Happy Halloween.” Your move, Ron. Watch below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4972183/burger-king-troll-mcdonalds-clowns/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4972183/burger-king-troll-mcdonalds-clowns/"},"headline":"Burger King Rides Clown Fear Wave to Brutally Troll McDonald's","datePublished":"2017-10-06T14:24:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:49.720Z","description":"'Never trust a clown'","url":"https://time.com/4972183/burger-king-troll-mcdonalds-clowns/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Mcdonald's","Burger King","IT","food and drink","onetime","Business"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04e863fe0947b2ce/6988e0d8e76ad21c5762f746/never.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04e863fe0947b2ce/6988e0d8e76ad21c5762f746/never.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"never","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4972183/burger-king-troll-mcdonalds-clowns/","name":"Burger King Rides Clown Fear Wave to Brutally Troll McDonald's"}}]}] ```