Really? I remember those commercials and remember what the product was. Seemed like a really good way to tie a likely common experience/discomfort people might have, something they likely say to themselves at that time, and a purported remedy for that problem. I have no idea how successful it was at making people buy Alka Seltzer, but it doesn’t seem “legendarily” bad.
This has got to be one of the most wrong-headed ideas to frequent this board. An ad company’s job is to make an ad that sells product. That’s why they are hired to make ads in the first place! It doesn’t matter if that advertisement goes on to sweep the Emmies, the Academy Awards the Nobels, and every other award category it isn’t eligible for, if it doesn’t increase sales, then the ad is a failure.
Nobody cares if anyone talks about the ad, they care if people buy the product. The company that bought the ad paid good money to have it created, then paid again to have it aired. All that money spent was in hopes of an increased bottom line, not to give folks something to talk about around the water cooler. And if an ad, memorable though it may be, results in an actual decrease in sales, then it’s an even bigger failure.
PREVIEW: I see upon further reading that this has been mentioned, but I’m going to post it anyway in hopes that it finally sinks in.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Say what?
I recognize the manager, so I’m fairly certain he’s an actor. I’d guess all the employees are actors, or at least paid well above minimum wage to play their part and get yelled at.
It seems like lately I’m the one in the group who who doesn’t find offense where others do, but even I was taken aback at the “Burger Queen” comment. Makes me wonder what comments they heard but thought were too derogatory to air.
Dude, they should put a 1950s Style Shoe Store X-Ray Machine* in the doorway of every Burger King, to quietly and discreetly sterilize anyone who throws a tantrum over a fucking Whopper.
- as opposed, of course, to the 1920s Style Death Ray
Yeah, how embarrassing for all those folks. Now all we need is one of them suing Burger King because their words were “taken out of context” or something. Like all those fucktards who sued the producers of Borat for “making” them look ignorant.
But will it decrease sales?
These kinds of ad aren’t my cup of tea either - I think they’re dumb. But they do stand out from the noise in ways that others don’t.
Right now ads are everywhere, but no one sees them. Banner ads are ignored, TV commercials are Tivo’d out, ads in the paper are skimmed over - if you’re reading the paper at all, and most people don’t.
Publicity doesn’t fail if it gets you bad press, it fails if you are ignored.
Spongmonkeys, actually. 
I like them.
Nope. The ad fails because it makes the Burger King experience look utterly unappealing.
I could make a commercial that showed someone grinding up a mouse to make burger meat. There would be huge complaints and the commercial would be pulled. Lots of people would be talking about that ad: “I can’t believe they did that!!!”. But it would do fuck all to sell the product.
There was one commercial for some fast food company, I can’t even remember the chain, just the ad (doesn’t help sell the product). It had people gulping, lip-smacking, snorting and slurping and totally grossed me out (really doesn’t help sell the product.)
I haven’t bee to a major fast food chain in years and ads like those are definitely not helping me to change my mind. If that’s what Burger King customers are like, it’s not a place I’m going to go.
Kind of a “Insert grenade launcher (A) into barrel (B), Fire, extract fish ©” concept.
Given the amount of defeat and frustration the average person faces in his or her daily life, it’s a slam-dunk to put a hidden camera in a traditonal free-fire zone such as a fast food or other minimum wage location, and take away yet another one of life’s little expectations.
It’s not about the indisposable merits of the Whopper. It’s about [Howard Beale]“Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.” [/Howard Beale]
Not only that, but the commercial tries to say “People freaked out.” I don’t see anyone freaking out, they are understandably confused that a place called Burger King can’t sell them a burger. Plus, I think that one dude was high anyway. I don’t even see any tantrums, just confusion and/or thinking the cashiers are screwing with them, which ultimately, they were.
Yes. I stopped eating at fast food restaurants because the food was lousy, my orders were often wrong, and it was like eating at an animal pen in the zoo. (Eg/ A guy walked in with bare feet, no shirt, was told to leave, and threw a tantrum worthy of a sleep deprived caffeine-drinking toddler).
If I was considering going to Burger King, that kind of commercial served to remind me of what I’m missing. Thank, Jeebus.
ETA: That and the implied: “Oh, by the way, we may be doing a Candid Camera prank on you when you visit our restaurant. Hope you have a sense of humour. Enjoy your visit.”
Alka-Seltzer.
I still remember, even after all those years.
Ed
Wow. Really? I wonder if the “customers” might be actors too. Ya think?
I remember the “plop-plop, fizz-fizz, oooooh what a relief it is” far better, because it makes using the product look like fun. (At least to me and my four-year-old self. Didn’t understand the “relief” part at the time, but I always thaough Alka-Seltzer looked like a good thing.)
Maybe, but if they are supposed to be representative of their customer base, it still makes them look bad.
Although it does seem vaguely homophobic, I don’t even understand the joke. Is it simply “if Burger King stops selling the Whopper, they’re fags?” Or is there some “Whopper = penis” innuendo meant? “If they stop selling giant cocks, they’re fags?” That makes even less sense. A joke really shouldn’t be more confusing than it is offensive.
I’m guessing not, since they explicitly state on the website that they aren’t. Besides, given how hysterical people tend to be about the slightest wrinkle in their restaurant experience, they had to have known they’d get at least a few minutes of good authentic overreactions from a day of footage.
There was a show on advertising I watched some time ago that said the ad itself, at the time, was a failure because people didn’t equate the commercial with the product. I think, thirty-some years later, people have a different perspective, but the campaign was essentially a failure when it came to moving the product and didn’t equal any brand recognition. I’ll see if I can dig that up.
Too late to be the first to say Alka Seltzer. They were on a roll back then. Just one great commercial after another.
Can you remember: “Poached oysters!” or “That’s some speecy spicy meatball!”?
Now I’m going to spend the morning trying to remember others.