It what seems like a two-fingered gesture at its critics, fast-food giant McDonalds has launched a new Bigger Big Mac burger to be sold in the UK throughout the World Cup.
The super-sized burger is 40% bigger than the standard Big Mac, which already contains 560 calories and more than half an adult's recommended daily intake of saturated fats. Presumably it's aimed at the kind of person who got peckish watching Super Size Me.
This wouldn't seem such a bad thing if McDonalds' customers were going to work off the lardy snack on a football pitch, but the likelihood is the most exercise they'll be doing during the World Cup is scrabbling down the back of the sofa for the remote. So by the end of July, we can look forward to the sight of footie fans looking more like Maradona before his stomach-stapling surgery than reed-thin Theo Walcott.
Then again, perhaps the fast-food giant is merely tapping into the phenomenon of mega-snacks, popularised by the website Pimp My Snack. Indeed, the Bigger Big Mac look puny in comparison to the pimped-up "Perfect Burger", which contains a whopping 703g of minced beef and an estimated 3,000 calories.
