Some would argue that the Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block performance at the 2010 American Music Awards was the greatest mashup that ever was, but that was before anyone had come up with the idea of the McWhopper.

Burger King sent McDonald's a request on Aug. 26 in honor of Peace Day to declare a cease-fire of the burger war the chains have been fighting against each other. A non-profit organization called Peace One Day established Sept. 21 to be this occasion and challenged "who will you make peace with?" to everyone around the world.

The proposal was simple—Burger King and McDonald's would fuse burger recipes of the Whopper and the Big Mac to create the ultimate peace-bearing burger. The McWhopper would be sold exclusively on Peace Day and all proceeds would benefit the cause. A pop-up restaurant was proposed to be built in Atlanta, a mid-point location between the Burger King headquarters in Miami and the McDonald's headquarters in Chicago. The McWhoppers would be cooked by McDonald's and Burger King employees together.

Prototypes of the uniforms and packaging were already created.

Later the same day, McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook responded to the proposal.

According to the 2014 Peace One Day Report, over 1 billion people were exposed to these peaceful messages and 10 million people are behaving more peacefully because of this campaign. At this rate, 3 billion people are expected to be exposed to these messages by 2016.

Whether or not this publicity strategy could have been a success remains unknown. But as silly as this could seem, the bottom line is that this gets attention because of its ridiculousness. Burger King could have simply just donated a certain percentage of sales to the Peace One Day organization, but that would not turn heads nearly as much as something like the McWhopper. Easterbrook makes a valid point that the Big Mac versus Whopper competition does not compare to violence and suffering, but there is no harm in having some clean fun to spread a good message across to an audience. Not to mention, something like this has ample fuel to start conversations about Peace Day, which is what matters in the end.

McDonald's has not proposed an alternative plan as of yet.

So, does McDonald's need to lighten up or should Burger King be more serious about this campaign? Post what you think in the comments section!