The Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun concept for the jingle was created by Charles Rosenberg, Creative Supervisor of the Dan Nichols team at Needham, Harper and Steers, Chicago.
Originally, the ingredients appeared as a one-word heading for an ad developed for college newspapers. The words were then set to music created by Mark Vieha, who performed the original jingle.
Rosenberg's concept was to purposely turn the ingredients into a tongue twister.
The jingle first appeared in a TV commercial titled "In a Word" developed by Dan and the advertising agency team. The first run of commercials ran only a year and a half, going off the air in 1976, but its popularity remained beyond its TV life. Subsequent to the jingle, there was a follow-up promotion based on its customers spontaneously having an "Attack".
Many stores in the United States ran promotions during the original campaign that awarded a free burger to customers who could recite the slogan within a specified time (usually two or three seconds).
One example of its success, was that the restaurant operators in New York City ran out of burger buns. Stores in Australia emulated this promotion in the mid-1980s, and some Brazilian stores around the same time (only offering a free glass of soda-pop instead), in the Portuguese version, which goes as "Dois hambúrgueres, alface, queijo, molho especial, cebola e picles num pão com gergelim".
The slogan soon led to a shaggy dog joke that had as its punchline "two obese Patties, Special Ross, Lester Cheese, picking bunions on a Sesame Street bus".
In 2003, the phrase was revived and part of the campaign had a rapper rapidly spouting off the trademark in the background music. Also in 2003, there was a Christmas ornament that included the slogan both printed and played aloud by pulling on a string.
In 2008, the phrase was revived in Malaysia. The revival includes the original prize if the customer is able to recite the phrase in under four seconds. This was released in May, along with the promotional "Mega" version, which has four beef patties rather than the standard two.