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McDonald's giving away McMuffins during Wendy's breakfast launch

McDonald's will give away free Egg McMuffins Monday when Wendy's launches its much ballyhooed breakfast menu.

February 28, 2020

With Wendy's set to launch breakfast Monday, the quest for the morning-meal customer has shifted into high gear. And McDonald's isn't about to let Wendy's edge it out of the race. Early this morning, the Golden Arches relayed that it is dubbing Monday "National Egg McMuffin Day" and giving free Egg McMuffins to customers downloading its mobile app between 6 and 10:30 a.m.

But then, shortly after that salvo was fired, Wendy's shot back, announcing that starting at 6:30 a.m. in Florida and Georgia, it's giving the first 100 drive-thru customers buying breakfast a coupon book for free breakfast sandwiches each week for a year.

Although McDonald's said its celebration was to honor the "nearly" 50-year existence of the breakfast sandwich, the banter online and elsewhere suggested it might be more of a full-frontal — but friendly — assault on Wendy's breakfast launch.

"While we're giving the Egg McMuffin its moment, we're really honoring our breakfast fans who have woken up with McDonald's breakfast for nearly 50 years," McDonald's Vice President of U.S. Communications David Tovar said in the release. "And we just thought, 'Hey, why not declare March 2 as National Egg McMuffin Day?'

Coincidentally the same time @wendys is starting breakfast 🤣#Scared

— ad.c. (@XB_JokerCLE) February 28, 2020

The hijacking argument gains credence when you consider that it's actually only been 49 years since the Egg McMuffin debuted in 1971. Whatever the truth of the matter is, the McDonald's offer in the early-day hours is sure to steal some of Wendy's business away.

Wendy's isn't taking it lying down, however. Not only will it give away all those sandwiches for the next year in two states, it's also burning up Twitter, where it has invited its fans to roast Mcdonald's and other competitors using the #WendysBreakfastBattle. The chain has reposted its favorites and is allowing fans to vote for theirs. 

Herb Peterson, an owner-operator in Santa Barbara, California, created the egg McMuffin when he initially worked to create a fast-food Eggs Benedict for his store. In fact, the brand said he also made the Teflon rings to give the eggs their shape.