Burger King advertising
During the 1970s, its advertisements included a memorable jingle, the inspiration for its current mascot the Burger King and several well-known and parodied slogans, such as Have it your way and It takes two hands to handle a Whopper.
From the early 1980s until approximately 2002, Burger King engaged a series of advertising agencies that produced many unsuccessful slogans and programs, including its least successful campaign, Where's Herb?.
CP+B also created a series of viral web-based advertisements to complement its television and print promotional campaigns on various social networks and various Burger King corporate pages.
Burger King successfully partnered with George Lucas's Lucasfilm to promote the 1977 movie Star Wars, one of the first product tie-ins in the fast food industry.
[citation needed] Pillsbury acquired the Burger King business in 1967, and a year later, BBDO was signed on as the company's advertising agency.
It offered several collectible items, such as posters, glasses and sticker sets that featured scenes and characters from Star Wars.
[citation needed] In 1982, Burger King's television advertising campaign featured Sarah Michelle Gellar, then aged 4.
The campaign was controversial because prior to it, fast food advertisements only made vague allusions to the competition and never mentioned the name.
[citation needed] In 1984, a commercial was aired featuring the character of Mister Rodney, a Mister Rogers impersonator, complete with parted hair, cardigan sweater and friendly smile, who would walk through a door to a cozy-looking room set, greet viewers with "Hi, neighbors," and proceed to tout the superiority of Burger King's flame broiled burgers over McDonald's fried ones, asking, "can you say, McFrying?
[8] Shortly after the acquisition of Burger King by TPG Capital in 2002, its new CEO Bradley (Brad) Blum set about reversing the fortunes of the company's advertising programs.
The company reinstated its famous Have it your way motto and engaged Miami-based advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), which was known for having a hip, subversive tack when creating campaigns for its clients.
The cups, bags and the company logo were redesigned with the intent to give BK an appealing, culturally aware and modern image.
[15] Shortly before the ad's release, the entry for Whopper had been edited to include lines such as "America's favourite burger" and "100% beef with no preservatives".
[16] Although the ad worked for a while, after a few hours the commercial no longer triggered a search by the device, which was viewed by both The New York Times and The Verge to be a deliberate change made by Google.
[16] During the hours that the ad was active, many attempts were made to vandalize the Wikipedia page in question to alter Google Home's description.
The television spot which premiered during the Super Bowl LIII features archival documentary film footage from "66 Scenes from America" by Jørgen Leth of the pop artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) unwrapping and eating a Whopper.
[24] The company explained that it has removed artificial preservatives from the Whopper in a number of European countries – including France, Sweden and Spain – and about 400 of its 7,346 U.S.
[citation needed] In 2022, Burger King released a new series of advertisements named "You Rule", built around the melody of the original "Have it Your Way" jingle.
Created for the Miami-based advertising firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) by The Barbarian Group, the program featured a viral marketing website and multiple television ads.
[51] Several versions were produced; the King is shown either sitting atop a hamburger or on an inverted trapezoid with the company name along the top and its motto Home of the Whopper below it.
All secondary signage was updated with the new logo and all sign posts were repainted to match the blue coloring of the new crescent, replacing the original black.
When the company opened its first Russian store in Moscow, a version of the logo with Cyrillic lettering, styled "Бypгep Kинг", was used.
The original logo, an inverted triangle with blue text, was used in television and print advertising, signage, toy and meal packaging.
[61] Starting in the 1970s and running into the 1980s, Burger King's "Kids' Club" program gave children coupons for selected products each month, a small toy, and a surprise on the child's birthday.
[citation needed] On 12 September 2007, Burger King announced that it was joining the Council of Better Business Bureaus Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative.
[75] The campaign followed their meeting on the set of the Whopperettes ad, dating, risqué shots of them at the beach, an engagement and summary break up.
[76] Burke also appears as a playable character and cover girl in the Xbox 360 games PocketBike Racer and Big Bumpin'.
[77] In the UK in 2009, CP+B and Cow PR launched a perfume, called Burger King Flame; Piers Morgan appeared in a poster campaign and a video.
From that point on, competition between the major QSR chains became an important part of advertising in the fast food industry; McDonald's partnered with Disney in the 1980s and early 1990s.
In 2008, Burger King again partnered with Lucasfilm and Amblin Entertainment for the release of the film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
