And most, if not all of those, are at least 20 years old, which sort of proves Transistor Rhythm’s case.
As weird as the “King” ads are, what BK has gotten out of them is some buzz value, which they hadn’t had for many, many years. (Now, the bigger issue is that a lot of their franchisees aren’t convinced that the weird advertising, and all the PR that they get from it, is actually doing anything for their sales.)
IMO, one of the more ill-conceived ad campaigns of recent times was the stuff that SalesGenie did for the Super Bowl, full of bad racial stereotypes. They seemed to be following the “any PR is good PR” model, but I’m not sure it worked for them here…and it made them look insensitive in the process.
Those toilet paper commercials with the cute animated bears who are constantly in need of an ass-wiping (even though they appear to not be blessed with an anus). I guess they prove once-and-for all that a bear does indeed shit in the woods.
Was “Whopper Freak-Out” before the King commercials?
Of course, I stopped eating at BK for about six months since the “Freak-Out” commercials seemed to say “Completely unhinged retards eat at Burger King” so maybe that’s not the best example.
There’s a host of commercials which make me sympathize with the supposed “antagonist” instead of the advertised product. The Swiffer commercials with the lovestruck and forlorn mop or broom is one. Another is some diet program which portrays “Hunger” as a fuzzy orange guy who wants to give me pizza and cake. I’d love a magical fuzzy guy who brings me cake.
Simultaneous. They’ve been running the King as part of their campaign for at least three or four years now (though he doesn’t appear in every ad). The Whopper Freak-Out ads were either last year, or earlier this year.
A few years ago McDonald’s very briefly ran ads for…oh, I want to say the Quarter Pounder, but it may not have been…where the tag line was “I’d hit that.” Someone must have clued them in pretty fast because I only remember seeing them a few times. They just made me giggle so much at someone “hitting” (ahem) a burger that it stuck with me.
*Talking *about a campaign does not make it a sucess unless it also makes you buy the product. This campaign is maybe neutral in that it is not actively causing people to stop going to BK, but I have yet to meet a person who was encouraged to go to BK because of the “King” character…and I would really prefer not to.
It was the double cheeseburger. That was an amazing lack of awareness for a company known for testing everything else so thoroughly - so I suspect it was intentional!
You are joking right? Maybe you are too young to remember: Hold the pickles hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us, all we ask is that you let us serve it your way. Have your way, at Burger King, have it your way…
And what about that Burger King Kids Club? You know, the one with the kid in the wheelchair and the token black kid and a bunch of “normal kids” all hanging out, being cool?
Well, yeah, there’s two patties so when you shove your penis in it, the “hot beef” is sandwiched in hot beef. The Big Mac has that pesky extra layer of bun.
:smack::smack::smack: I can’t believe I didn’t get this until now. Sounds like something I could contribute to the “Obvious things you realize about a creative work after the millionth time”. Except I didn’t notice it and it’s hardly a creative work. I feel as though I’ve seen it a million times though, so I guess one out of three isn’t bad.
Based on anecdotal evidence I’d say the King ads keep people away. I was driving my nieces to the movies this summer and we were discussing what fast food place to go to beforehand; Burger King got shot down specifically on the strength of those ads as being too gross.
