Watch that, and try not to smirk.

“McBurned,” they call it.

That, friends, is joyful, careful, merciless capitalist advantage-taking. Cold-blooded, unrelenting, knife-twisting marketing.

About a month ago, McDonald’s announced basically that the Angus burgers were too expensive and they didn’t make enough money on them. Your move, Puzder.

We hear an audible gasp pass through the crowd when they behold the response, as they realize the extent of the brutality they’re witnessing.

You already know (I flatter myself that you’ve been following the blog like a serialized dramatic miniseries) how I love that signature food-bounce at the end. What comes before it almost always leaves me feeling dirty and unpleasant, as the father of a daughter.

But this—you gotta hand it to them. This is just great.

They ran this full page ad, too.

And they had their website up and offering coupons for Puzder-burgers that brought the price below what you used to pay at McDonald’s, as a little coup de grace. A month’s warning (maybe industry sources gave them even longer) sounds like a long time, but this assault is so coordinated I know there were some late nights getting it done.

Well played, you old sons of guns. Well played.