Said Björn Ståhl, quoted in "Why Burger King Is Proudly Advertising a Moldy, Disgusting Whopper/The chain's anti-preservatives pledge breaks just about every rule in advertising" (AdWeek)("The Moldy Whopper campaign, created through a partnership of three agencies features intriguingly high-resolution photography and video of a Whopper being consumed not by humans but rather by the voracious maw of time itself. In other words, we get to see a Whopper rotting").
Very beautiful, not that you want to eat it, but the point is that you eat it freshly made, and the mold that comes later proves its goodness on Day 1. And Burger King trusts its customers to understand the science and to enjoy the beauty of the artistically photographed food in its post-edible phase...
Snobs will say anyone sophisticated enough to appreciate this approach to advertising would never eat at Burger King anyway.
ADDED: Something you might not know about me is that in the year before I went to law school, I worked at J. Walter Thompson. The biggest client at the time was Burger King, and the big new campaign was "Burger King and I":
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56 comments:
A little too nuanced, I would say. I used to pay food photographers good dollars to properly shoot plates of food to make it look delicious and appealing. We always taught our team that people eat with their eyes and nose.
BK has apparently given up that idea and believe that everyone is a current or former Art History or biology major. They're not. It's an awful ad. But it's BK so it really doesn't matter. Those who eat at BK will continue to do so. Those who avoid BK have more reason than ever to continue to do so.
For the record, I'm more concerned about the food safety training (or lack of it) in today's quick serve restaurants. I was already not going before seeing the ad.
Snobs will say anyone sophisticated enough to appreciate this approach to advertising would never eat at Burger King anyway.
No true sophisticate.
I think the snobs are right in this case.
Burger King in Durham, NC was my first real job. Still love a good fresh-made Whopper. Even snobs eat fast food.
Don's Drive-In in Livingston NJ has a blue cheeseberger that's great and at least reminds you of mold via the cheese. At least in the 1990s and before. Ask for Olga.
The Twinkie proudly retains its lock on the other end of the spectrum.
This ad might do more for Twinkie sales than BK’s.
I like the ad but I would never release it if I were in charge for Burger King. On some level, many people will associate the burger with rot. You only want positive images associated with your food.
My first reaction was that this had to be from the Babylon Bee. I expect that this will be one of those things where whoever thought this was a good idea and signed off on it will be hiding under his/her desk.
More marketing. The Whopper grows a unibrow.
Yum. I hope it catches on!
Some guy sued, BK I think it was, for false advertising in the form of misleading pictures and the government lawyer's replacement for wisdom consisted of "Everybody knows the pictures are fake, therefore they're not dishonest."
Now that's having it YOUR way.
The article does not mention this, but I bet the ad is based in part on Sam Taylor-Wood's "Still Life"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXPP8eUlEtk
Burger King in Durham, NC was my first real job
If you were a breakfast patron of the Burger King drive thru in Glenville, NY on a Saturday in the mid 80's you'd likely be served by rehajm in his brown corduroy BK attire. We used to hack the menu before anyone knew what life hacks were. Double bacon cheeseburger with bbq sauce, triple fried onion rings with tartar sauce and apple pie a lá mode.
My first job was at a Burger King and, although I don't eat much fast food, I maintain a rooting interest. They are my team. Kings not Clowns.
Hmmm, yesterday people were too dumb to know what "LLP" means. Now they know that moldy means goodness?
Burger King's food is fantastic conceptually, but ghetto in execution.
My first job after newspaper delivery was at a Burger King in Midland Park, NJ. Still love a good fresh-made Whopper (no onions). The true cognoscenti eat at BK.
“And Burger King trusts its customers to understand the science and to enjoy the beauty of the artistically photographed food in its post-edible phase...”
Yeah, ‘cause that’s what the fast food consumer is all about. Jesus, talk about the death of expertise. A 5 year-old would know better.
"Everybody knows the pictures are fake, therefore they're not dishonest."
Isn't that the excuse used whenever Trump and/or the White House tweets a photo-shopped picture?
I remember when Burger King fist came to Long Island in the early 70's. We'd drive 30-40 minutes to wait in line for 10-15 minutes to get our order. The burgers were really good. In high school in the mid 70's we would save our buy one, get one coupons to go to Burger King after Saturday baseball practice. Fond memories. Today the burgers are cooked early shift and microwaved before serving. Rubber. Yuk
Ask for Olga. signed, rhhardin
!!! Even this newbie notices!
purplepenquin said...
"Everybody knows the pictures are fake, therefore they're not dishonest."
Isn't that the excuse used whenever Trump and/or the White House tweets a photo-shopped picture?
Substitute "reason" for excuse and, yeah. If there's no attempt to deceive, then it's not dishonest. Pretty straightforward, really. Which part is giving you trouble?
The internet idiots say it contains so many chemicals, it does not decay. They are showing that as being untrue.
And Purple Pen Quin is an asshole.
I'm assuming this is some sort of push back on the recent spate of stories about Mac burgers staying untouched by mold after ten years of aging. Still, I might have gone a different way.
Highly effective: Totally destroys any lingering desire I might have had to eat a Whopper.
Conquest's Third Law: "The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies."
So Burger King's advertising is being run by McDonalds'?
Amexpat observes: I like the ad but I would never release it if I were in charge for Burger King. On some level, many people will associate the burger with rot. You only want positive images associated with your food.
Yep. Association is everything in advertising.
Gross. I don't eat there, and this ad makes it less likely that I will in the future.
It's like trying to sell me car by showing it as a rusted out hulk in a junk yard.
“You should see the other guy.”
Without showing a “control group” of competitor burgers not rotting I really don’t see the value of the ad.
Was a fear of litigation the reason why BK didn’t, or was it a fear of the other guy looking good?
I manufacture products every day. When clients ask for natural or unpreserved formulas, I say no thank you. Take your business elsewhere. Here's how it is supposed to work in food and personal care, and how it is done for OTC and drug producs: Develop formula/product (with preservative). Take prototype and challenge it. You hit it with bacteria, mold and yeast. The preservative permanently reduces or kills it all. Then you can make the product. The product is made from purified ingredients, with or without preservatives, it will ship out the door uncontaminated. Preservatives aren't there to get it out the door. They are there to protect you out in the real world. The moment you open a container, it is exposed to air. Mold spores are floating everywhere around you. They will hit the product instantaneously. As soon as the restaurant opens the package of ground beef or any food stuff, it is now exposed to bacteria. Again preservatives are there to protect you from contamination that will happen no matter how careful you are.
Another example of anti-science destruction of our society. We once got rid of polio, et al. We solved that problem. Now, thanks to anti-vaxxers, diseases that were eradicated, for the most part, are returning.
Genetic engineering has allowed us to feed the world, now it must be eradicated. We came up with fertilizers and pesticides that increased crop yields, feeding the world for a fraction of the cost of a 100 years ago. Now, organic and non-GMO farming is giving back those gains.
So, we used to preserve with all sorts of natural stuff, e.g. salting meat, high and low pH additions. Then we came up with safe and cheap preservatives that once again allowed us to produce and store massive amounts of food, reducing cost and waste. Now, anti-preservative nazis are pushing us to use ineffective "natural" preservatives and go preservative free. Food waste will increase. People will get sick. Some will die. But, God forbid we should ingest some preservatives.
Ah yes, the 70's when McDonald's and Burger King were marketed to Kids and families. I remember it well. When you went to get your burger with your Mom, you'd see some teenager at the counter - some friend of your older brother - not Jose from Guatemala.
Best Burger Ad Campaign:
Where's the Beef?
Eat at Burger King,
We don't try,
To inhibit,
E-coli.
It's almost as if Burger King was actively tanking its own brand with this shit. Why? Qui bono?
This is a fitting follow-up for the company whose last massive ad onslaught was for the meatless "impossible burger." Because that's what most fast food burger customers were anxiously waiting for. A meatless burger option. It's amazing to behold how out of touch a company can be with its own customers.
"It's almost as if Burger King was actively tanking its own brand with this shit. Why? Qui bono?"
See Conquest's Third Law of politics.
"I'll have the COVIDburger, with cheese"
{New Yorker cartoon (80's?) "Ill have the Chicken TamiFlu"
Haven't eaten a burger at Burger King since the 80s. The Whopper was my favorite burger by a lot. Then sometime late in the "Where's the Beef" campaign BK made their patties wider, but thinner, to stick out visibly from the bun. I don't know what else changed, but suddenly the burger began tasting nasty to me. I'm still searching for a good replacement.
This ad is best understood as virtue-signaling by the CEO (King?) of Burger King to his social class. Same reason MacDonald's CEO killed the best fries 10 years ago. The managerial caste is in competition with the academic caste to express their disgust for the kind of people who consume their products. Adam Smith is great in theory, but Max Weber is where we live.
Haven't eaten a burger at Burger King since the 80s.
I never have, since hearing a rumor in high school from someone who worked there. We all called it Booger King. :-\
Yancey Ward said...
Eat at Burger King,
We don't try,
To inhibit,
E-coli.
Burger Shave?
(...it could use one!)
If you buy a whopper and throw away the bread, you'll realize that the meat is basically cardboard like, not very tasty.
robother,
Don't leave out Gillette. Their toxic masculinity ad has to be in the running as the most suicidal, virtue signaling ad of all time.
That is the new penicillin meal to be taken orally three times a day until the fever goes away.
Most fast food has lost flavor over the years, catering to the people who complain about the food content of food they wouldn't think of eating. KFC ruined their chicken for me when they stopped using lard to placate the food nazis. Similar to how McDonald's destroyed the flavor of their fries.
Did I see Patrick Swayze in that commercial?
lgv said... [hush][hide comment]
I manufacture products every day. When clients ask for natural or unpreserved formulas, I say no thank you. Take your business elsewhere.
I am with you on that. All these old people in their eighties and nineties grew up on preservatives.
We get McDonalds once in awhile. I always disassemble the burger to critique it and explain to my wife how we did it, back in the day.
"Cheese on 24?"
"Cheese 12 !"
"I am with you on that. All these old people in their eighties and nineties grew up on preservatives."
2/21/20, 1:49 PM
There's a YouTube guy who has made several videos showing him opening and sampling unused WWII C and K rations. The biscuits were still edible and, according to him, tasted pretty good. (The 70 year old tins of meat and cheese fared less well. They were pretty disgusting.)
I'll bet the makers of those biscuits would be immensely proud to know their cookies not only held up against the Japanese and the Nazis, but Father Time as well.
""Everybody knows the pictures are fake, therefore they're not dishonest."
Imagine if the contents of your microwave entree actually looked anything like the picture on the box? Or your frozen pizza, or frozen sandwich wrap?
So, yes, the ad is too clever by far. Yes, a BK Whopper will rot. So will the lettuce sold in a grocery store. Therefore, perhaps grocery stores should display photos of slimy, decomposing lettuce above the tray or table where their lettuce (or other greens) are sold?
Perhaps the photo on that microwave dinner should show the contents in a condition a dog wouldn't eat?
As a young teen I unearthed a very colorful sandwich [I think that's what it was!] in a plastic bag in a drawer in my room. I figured it had gotten there during the process of 'cleaning my room' [under duress] and long forgotten. Who knew there were so many different types and colors of mold?!
FullMoon: "All these old people in their eighties and nineties grew up on preservatives."
Agreed, I'm not that old, but I have an idea that the crap in the stuff I ate in the '50s and '60s is helping to preserve me now. It sure isn't anything that I'm doing, at least not intentionally.
Regarding the ad: Speaking as someone who respects good food photography, there's no way a well-lit closeup of a moldy sandwich is going to get anybody in the mood to head out to the local fast-food outlet. On the contrary, seeing the mental walking wounded that work in those places encourage one to think of anything but bacteria and molds at the time.
That ad agency should not only be fired, but shunned as well.
I have to wonder sometimes what these Marketing types are thinking about when I see some of the stuff they come up with. (Of course, they're trying to think of something that they can cite at their next performance appraisal so they can get that bonus... if it works.) Recently ConAgra, the maker of "Guldens Spicy Mustard" got the bright idea to repackage this venerable product in a black plastic container. I had the hardest time finding it at the store! I always look for that characteristic spicy mustard color.
So I wrote them an email and complained, asking them whether they had something to hide in those bottles, or did there Marketing guys just like things that are black and shiny?
Not claiming credit, but they're back to transparent bottles now.
Mold? Big deal. My wife pays extra to get fungus with her burgers and steaks.
(And, yes, I know that mold is a variety of fungus. But they don't offer sauteed mold....yet.)
Did they really get away with "Burger King and I"?
How can anyone eat at a place that doesn't understand it should be "Burger King and me"?
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