Burger King advertising
Encyclopedia
International fast food
chain
Burger King
has employed varied advertising programs, both successful and unsuccessful, since its foundation in 1954. During the 1970s, output 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 hold a Whopper. Starting in the early 1980s and running through approximately 2002, BK engaged a series of ad agencies
that produced many unsuccessful slogans and programs, including its biggest advertising flop Where's Herb?
.
Beginning in 2003, BK began resuscitating its moribund advertising with the hiring of the Miami-based advertising agency of Crispin Porter + Bogusky
(abbreviated as CP+B). As one of CP+B new advertising strategies, they revived the Burger King
character used during BKs 1970s/1980s Burger King Kingdom
advertising campaign as a caricature
d variation now simply called "the King". The farcical nature of the Burger King centered advertisements inspired an internet meme
where the King is photoshopped
into unusual situations that are either comical or menacing, many times followed with the phrase Where is your God now?.
Additionally, CP+B created a series of viral
web-based advertisements to compliment the various television and print promotional campaigns on sites such as MySpace
and various BK corporate pages. These viral ad campaigns, coupled with other new campaigns and a series of new product
introductions, drew considerable positive and negative attention to BK and helped TPG and its partners realize about $367 million in dividends.
Burger King was a pioneer in the advertising practice known as the product tie-in with a successful partnering with George Lucas
' Lucasfilm, Ltd.
to promote the 1977 movie Star Wars
. This promotion was one of the first in the fast food
industry and set the pattern that continues to the present. The company's most successful period of tie-ins was the decade from 1990–2000 that saw a highly successful campaign with Disney's animated films, including the Academy Award nominated Beauty & the Beast
and Academy Award winning Toy Story
, and a partnership in association with the Pokémon
franchise in 1999.
One of Burger King's first major cross-promotion
al successes was in 1977 when they offered several collectibles including posters, glasses and sticker sets that featured scenes and characters from Star Wars
. The promotion was wildly successful, and the glasses are highly sought after to this day. The relationship with George Lucas' Lucasfilm, LTD. continued through the other two films in the first Star Wars
trilogy and continued through the final film and the DVD release of both trilogies.
In 1982, Burger King created an advertising stir when it created a set of commercials featuring a then-4-year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar
, in which Gellar stated that McDonald's burgers were 20% smaller than Burger King's. Arguably the first attack ads on a food chain by a competitor, the campaign was controversial in that prior to it, fast food ads only made allusions to the competition in a vague manner, never mentioning them by name. McDonald's sued Burger King, the advertising agency that came up with the ads, and Gellar. The suit was settled the following year on undisclosed terms.
During the 1984 television premiere of Star Wars, Burger King commercials are featured prominently, including an advertisement about "When Burger King came to 9th Street". This advertisement shows African-American's break dancing to many Burger King products, including one man who is spinning to form the shape of a whopper.
In November 1985, Burger King spent $40 million on the "Where's Herb?" advertising campaign. The company stated that Herb was the only man in America who had never eaten a Whopper. If a customer located him in any store, he or she would win $5,000. Burger King purposely chose not to reveal what Herb looked like, resulting in annoyance among its patrons. In a Super Bowl XX
commercial, Burger King finally revealed Herb as a bespectacled nerd in an ill-fitting suit. Herb toured stores across the country, appeared on The Today Show, and served as a guest timekeeper during WrestleMania 2
. The campaign had little impact on sales and was quickly dropped. According to Advertising Age
magazine, the Herb campaign was the "most elaborate advertising flop of the decade." Other 1980s ad campaigns such as "This is a Burger King town", "Fast food for fast times", and "We do it like you'd do it" had little more success.
In the early 1990s, Burger King advertised introduced its new dinner offering, dinner baskets and table service, with the "BK Tee Vee" (or "BKTV") ad campaign. The taglines for the campaign were "BK Tee Vee... I Love this Place!" and "Your Way Right Away!", which featured Dan Cortese
as "Dan: The Whopper Man." Burger King's continued lack of a successful advertising campaign during the 1980s and 1990s, in contrast to McDonald's usually memorable slogans and jingles, led to ridicule by the advertising community and the general public.
In September 2002, Burger King introduced its 99¢ Value Menu
. The menu was in response to Wendy's
99¢ Value Menu and included a grilled sourdough burger, a bacon cheeseburger, french fries, onion rings, soft drinks, three flavors of ice cream shakes; beef chili, two types of tacos; chicken tenders, baked potatoes and a garden salad. The ads featured the comedian Adam Corolla as the voice of BK's drive thru. Since then many of the items have been removed from the menu or have been made an optional menu item, and the menu has become the BK Value Menu with prices starting at a dollar (US).
:
African American
market:
Hispanic
market:
Internet:
Children's:
executive Bradley (Brad) Blum
, set about turning around fortunes of the company by initiating an overhaul its flailing advertising programs. One of the first moves by the company was to reinstate its famous Have it your way slogan as the corporate motto. BK handed the effort off to its new advertising agency, Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky
(abbreviated as CP+B). CP+B was known for having a hip, subversive tack when creating campaigns for its clients, exactly what BK was looking for.
CP+B set about revamping BK's image with a complete top to bottom overhaul of how the company marketed itself to the public. Everything from the cups and bags to the company logo was completely redesigned with the intent to give BK a hip, culturally aware image that would appeal to modern sensibilities. Humorous statements, claims and product descriptions were placed on bags, product packaging and on in-store promotional materials, including a Burger King Bill of Rights that gave its customers the right to Have it Your Way. It also set about creating an advertising campaign that not only focused on television spots, but also print, web and product tie-ins.
One of it major strategies was to revive the Burger King
character used during BKs 1970s/1980s Burger King Kingdom
advertising campaign. The new character was redesigned as a caricature
d variation now simply called the Burger King or just the King. The new incarnation replaced the singing and dancing Magical Burger King with a non-speaking mime-like actor wearing an over-sized, grinning plastic mask resembling the original actor who played King. Employing the practice of viral marketing
, CP+B's ads generated significant word of mouth and for its new use of what has been became known as the Creepy King persona, an appellation that CP+B adopted for use in newer ads.
In April 2009, a CP+B advertisement for Burger King's "Texican burger" was pulled from the air after causing an international uproar over insults to Mexico
.
where the King is photoshopped
into unusual situations that are either comical or menacing, many times followed with the phrase Where is your God now?.
On August 19, 2011, the company announced that it would no longer retain "the king" in advertising.
character in the 1960s and can be described as the Sitting King logo, as the Burger King character is shown sitting atop the sign holding a beverage. The sign has several versions, with the King 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; some signs did not include the King and only had the inverted trapezoid. This logo was used in one form or another until May 1, 1969 when the famous Burger King "bun halves" logo made its debut, and has continued in one form or another until the current day. As implied by its name, the logo is meant to resemble a hamburger
; the logo had two orange semi-circular "buns" surrounding the name, which was the "meat" of the logo. On May 1, 1994 BK updated the logo with a graphical tightening, replacing the aging "bulging" font with a smoother font with rounded edges.
The current BK "blue crescent" logo was designed by the New York-based Sterling Group and made its official debut on July 1, 1999. The new Burger King logo is a stylized version of the original "bun halves" logo. BK changed the color of the restaurant's name from red to burgundy, while leaving them sandwiched between two yellow bun halves. The new logo also tilts the bun halves and the font
on an axis, has a smaller "bun" motif and wraps the burger with a blue crescent, giving it a more circular
appearance. Most restaurants did not acquire newer signs with the new logo, menus, and drive-thru ordering speakers until 2001. Again, all secondary signage was updated with the new logo and sharp type face, and all sign posts were repainted to match the blue coloring of the new crescent from their original black.
(برغر كينغ); otherwise the logo is identical to the "blue crescent" logo used in the west. With the expansion of the company inside Russia with its first store in Moscow, Burger King added another version of its logo that used non-Latin text, now in the Cyrillic alphabet
(Бypгep Kинг).
The most current logo in North America is for its Club BK program which was phased in during July 2008. In the countries where the BK Kid's Club is still an active promotion, BK and its franchises still use the "blue crescent" iteration that was introduced at the time the company modified its logo to the current corporate logo.
Evolution of the logos used for the children's advertising programs in the US and abroad.
In 1989 Burger King restaurants introduced "King Deals", daily specials that were offered for 99¢ with the slogan At Burger King, you not only get change, you get change. The schedule was Sunday – Whopper Junior, Monday – Big King, Tuesday – Chicken Sandwich, Wednesday – Whopper, Thursday – Bacon Cheeseburger, Friday – Fish Sandwich, and Saturday – Double Cheeseburger.
with a throne
as the seat and visit a BK and present the children with small gifts. The tag line was "Burger King: Where kids are King!"
and performed magic tricks (mostly sleight-of-hand, but sometimes relying on camera tricks). This campaign paralleled McDonald's McDonaldland
children's commercials, which featured "Ronald McDonald
," "The Hamburglar," and "Mayor McCheese," along with other characters and mascots.
Other characters in the Burger King Kingdom included:
in the late 1970s, BK introduced its own permanent kids meal, called the Kids' Meal Pack, in 1985 with a He-Man
cross promotion. In June 1999 BK introduced the Big Kids' Meal aimed at the preteen
market with larger portions, which forced McDonald's to introduce its Mighty Kids Meal.
The original packaging for the Kids' Meal Pack was similar to McDonald's Happy Meal, a paperboard
box with colorful graphics featuring games and BK characters or promotional images from product tie-ins. With the introduction of the Burger King Kids Club, the packaging was changed to a less expensive, multi-compartment white paper bag that had a cellophane
window that displayed the toy prominently on the front of the bag and had the food in the second, larger compartment. When the Big Kids' meal was introduced, BK changed its regular Kids' meal packaging to smaller, standard single compartment bag with the Burger King Kids Club Gang in the graphics and they added a second, larger brown paper bag with graphics targeting at the preteen market for the Big Kids Meal. Eventually both bags were replaced with a single white paper bag the same size as the Big Kids' meal packaging with the preteen oriented graphics.
In 1989, Burger King re-launched its kids' meal program as the Burger King Kids Club meal across the United States
and in New Zealand
. The Burger King Kids Club Gang, a group of multi-ethnic fictional characters, were created to promote the Burger King Kids Club meal by providing a group of stylized characters that most kids could associate with, e.g. the brain, the artist, etc.
The members of the gang were:
In the early 2000s a new female character was added to the group:
Each of the characters' signatures reflected their personality, e.g. Boomer signed her name with a football
and baseball
for the "O"s.
Furthermore, Burger King created a "Kids Club" in which club members receive an annual mailing in the month of their birthday that contains games, product information, and a birthday gift in the form of a coupon for a free Kids' Meal. Even though the BK Kids' Club Gang has been discontinued in the US, the club itself continues in operation to this day and is the largest club of its kind in North America. Additionally, they can still be seen on some playground signs and decorations in some locations. The club has been closed in New Zealand
.
The Burger King Kids Club had a logo that was used from 1994–2001. The logo was a variation in the classic "Bun Halves" logo that BK introduced in 1969 and revised in 1994. It used the two "bun halves" like the main BK logo but the Burger King name was on one line under the top half of the bun, while the words Kids Club were on two lines below the BK name in a larger, different style font.
The Burger King stores in the Middle East
are still using the BK Kid's Club Gang for its children's advertising, though IQ and Jazz are absent.
In 2005, the Kids Club Gang was replaced by the Honbatz, odd creatures who were designed to replace its 15-year-old Kids Club gang with a more modern group of characters that would appeal to the preteen
market. Each Honbatz has a personality that you would find in modern elementary school
: the class clown, the brain or the rebellious one.
The new group consisted of:
They have appeared in numerous ads, and are still used in some European markets and New Zealand.
In September 2006, BK began using the original animated King design from the 1970s on its cups, bags and in non tie-in
kids advertising. The new (old) King is portrayed as a sarcastic type who sometimes gets in trouble for his mischief making adventures.
Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. The program, a voluntary self-regulation program designed to shift advertising messages aimed at children so that they encourage healthier eating habits and lifestyles. As part of this new initiative, BKC has stated that it will restrict advertising to children under 12 that uses third-party licensed characters to Kids Meals that meet its Nutrition Guidelines, refrain from advertising in elementary schools and from product placement in media primarily aimed at children under 12, promote Kids Meals that meet its Nutrition Guidelines as set forth on its web site and promote healthy lifestyles and healthy dietary choices in its advertising. In response several groups, including the CSPI, lauded the move as guarded good news.
In Sweden
Burger Kings main slogan is "Grillat är godast, bara på Burger King" which translates to "Grilled is tastier, only at Burger King".
. Ms. Gellar, in 1981 at the age of four, appeared in a series of commercials that disparaged the size McDonald's hamburgers, claiming them to be 20% smaller than BK burgers. These commercials, some of the first to mention a fast food competitor in a TV ad, angered the McDonald's Corporation executives who in turn sued BK, their ad agency at the time the J. Walter Thompson Company
and Ms. Gellar. The laws suit was eventually settled in 1982 for an undisclosed sum.
A 2005–2006 viral ad campaign by CP+B had model\actress Brooke Burke
and The King going through a mock celebrity courtship. The campaign had fake paparazzi
photos and videos show up in gossip columns and celebrity gossip web sites across the internet. The courtship followed their meeting on the set of the Whopperettes ad, dating, risqué shots of them at the beach with her topless (no nudity), an engagement and summary break up. She also appears as a playable character and cover girl
in the Xbox 360
games PocketBike Racer
and Big Bumpin'
.
In 2009, CP+B and Cow PR launched the Burger King Flame fragrance in the UK, which featured Piers Morgan
fronting both a poster campaign and viral video.
(later renamed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
) in which BK sold a set of glasses featuring the main characters from the film. From that point on a competition between the major QSR chains became one of the cornerstones of advertising in the fast food industry. BK's early success was overshadowed by the joint venture between McDonald's and Disney in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1994 Burger King reversed the situation with its own ten film contract with Disney, a venture that led to great success as this period in Disney films was considered to be Disney's second Golden Age. BK was able to promote such top ten films such as Aladdin (1992), Beauty and the Beast
(1991), The Lion King
(1994) and Toy Story
(1995). These cross promotions were some of the most successful in the industry, rivaled only by McDonald's\Ty Beanie Babies cross-promotion in 1999–2000.
Burger King continued it successful partnership with Lucasfilm LTD.
for the other two films in the original Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back
(1980) and Return of the Jedi
(1984), as well as the last film of the second trilogy, Revenge of the Sith (2005). BK lost the first run tie-in rights to the first two movies of the second trilogy, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
(1999) and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
(2002), to Yum! Brands
(KFC
, Taco Bell
et al.) but had an extensive tie-in with the DVD release of the two trilogies in 2006. In 2008, Burger King joined with Lucasfilm and Amblin Entertainment
for the release of the fourth Indiana Jones
film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Another long running Burger King tie-in partnership has been with 20th Century Fox
's property The Simpsons
. BK's first promotion with Fox began in 1990, when the show became a series after three years as a short segment on The Tracey Ullman Show
, and was a set of 8 to 12 in (20.3 to 30.5 cm) dolls featuring each member of the Simpsons family. Other Simpsons/BK promotions included a British Kid's Club toy in 1998, 2000 and 2001; a Halloween themed Kid's Club toy in 2001 and 2002; A summertime special at Hungry Jack's in 2001 and The Simpsons Movie
in 2007. As part of the Promotion for the Simpsons Movie, CP+B produced a commercial with a Simpsons version of the King with yellow skin, overbite and four fingers as well as a web site that allowed people to make a "Simpsonized" version of themselves from uploaded pictures.
Fast food restaurant
A fast food restaurant, also known as a Quick Service Restaurant or QSR within the industry itself, is a specific type of restaurant characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service...
chain
Chain store
Chain stores are retail outlets that share a brand and central management, and usually have standardized business methods and practices. These characteristics also apply to chain restaurants and some service-oriented chain businesses. In retail, dining and many service categories, chain businesses...
Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
has employed varied advertising programs, both successful and unsuccessful, since its foundation in 1954. During the 1970s, output included a memorable jingle, the inspiration for its current mascot the Burger King
The Burger King
The Burger King was a character created as the advertising mascot for the international fast-food restaurant franchise Burger King who became famous in numerous television commercials, including the Burger King Kingdom. The first iteration of the King was part of Burger King sign at the first store...
and several well-known and parodied slogans such as Have it your way and It takes two hands to hold a Whopper. Starting in the early 1980s and running through approximately 2002, BK engaged a series of ad agencies
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
that produced many unsuccessful slogans and programs, including its biggest advertising flop Where's Herb?
Where's Herb?
Where's Herb? was an advertising campaign for the fast food chain Burger King in 1985 and 1986. The television commercials featured a fictional character named Herb, who was described as never having eaten a Burger King burger in his life. They called on fans to visit their local Burger King in the...
.
Beginning in 2003, BK began resuscitating its moribund advertising with the hiring of the Miami-based advertising agency of Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Crispin Porter + Bogusky , a member of publicly-traded MDC Partners, is an advertising agency that currently employs around 1,000 people. It was founded in 1965 by Sam Crispin.. Crispin then became partners with Chuck Porter and Alex Bogusky...
(abbreviated as CP+B). As one of CP+B new advertising strategies, they revived the Burger King
The Burger King
The Burger King was a character created as the advertising mascot for the international fast-food restaurant franchise Burger King who became famous in numerous television commercials, including the Burger King Kingdom. The first iteration of the King was part of Burger King sign at the first store...
character used during BKs 1970s/1980s Burger King Kingdom
Burger King Kingdom
The Burger King Kingdom is a fantasy world associated with Burger King.-History:The Burger King Kingdom was the name of Burger King's answer to McDonaldland during the mid-1970s...
advertising campaign as a caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
d variation now simply called "the King". The farcical nature of the Burger King centered advertisements inspired an internet meme
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
where the King is photoshopped
Photo manipulation
Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception , through analog or digital means.- Types of digital photo manipulation :...
into unusual situations that are either comical or menacing, many times followed with the phrase Where is your God now?.
Additionally, CP+B created a series of viral
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
web-based advertisements to compliment the various television and print promotional campaigns on sites such as MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
and various BK corporate pages. These viral ad campaigns, coupled with other new campaigns and a series of new product
Burger King products
When the predecessor of international fast food restaurant chain Burger King first opened in 1953, its menu predominantly consisted of hamburgers, french fries, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts...
introductions, drew considerable positive and negative attention to BK and helped TPG and its partners realize about $367 million in dividends.
Burger King was a pioneer in the advertising practice known as the product tie-in with a successful partnering with George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
' Lucasfilm, Ltd.
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman and CEO, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....
to promote the 1977 movie Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
. This promotion was one of the first in the fast food
Fast food restaurant
A fast food restaurant, also known as a Quick Service Restaurant or QSR within the industry itself, is a specific type of restaurant characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service...
industry and set the pattern that continues to the present. The company's most successful period of tie-ins was the decade from 1990–2000 that saw a highly successful campaign with Disney's animated films, including the Academy Award nominated Beauty & the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
and Academy Award winning Toy Story
Toy Story
Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI. The film was directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen...
, and a partnership in association with the Pokémon
Pokémon
is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...
franchise in 1999.
United States
Beginning in 1973, Burger King ran a series of much-lampooned but successful and catchy television commercials in which its employees would sing: "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Special orders don't upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way!" This advertising strategy aimed to contrast Burger King's flexibility with McDonald's famous rigidity. Many of the companies subsequent advertising campaigns have reiterated this same theme.One of Burger King's first major cross-promotion
Cross-promotion
Cross-promotion is a form of marketing promotion where customers of one product or service are targeted with promotion of a related product. A typical example is cross-media marketing of a brand, for example Oprah Winfrey's promotion on her television show of her books, magazines and website...
al successes was in 1977 when they offered several collectibles including posters, glasses and sticker sets that featured scenes and characters from Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
. The promotion was wildly successful, and the glasses are highly sought after to this day. The relationship with George Lucas' Lucasfilm, LTD. continued through the other two films in the first Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
trilogy and continued through the final film and the DVD release of both trilogies.
In 1982, Burger King created an advertising stir when it created a set of commercials featuring a then-4-year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze , known professionally by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar , is an American actress, singer and executive producer...
, in which Gellar stated that McDonald's burgers were 20% smaller than Burger King's. Arguably the first attack ads on a food chain by a competitor, the campaign was controversial in that prior to it, fast food ads only made allusions to the competition in a vague manner, never mentioning them by name. McDonald's sued Burger King, the advertising agency that came up with the ads, and Gellar. The suit was settled the following year on undisclosed terms.
During the 1984 television premiere of Star Wars, Burger King commercials are featured prominently, including an advertisement about "When Burger King came to 9th Street". This advertisement shows African-American's break dancing to many Burger King products, including one man who is spinning to form the shape of a whopper.
In November 1985, Burger King spent $40 million on the "Where's Herb?" advertising campaign. The company stated that Herb was the only man in America who had never eaten a Whopper. If a customer located him in any store, he or she would win $5,000. Burger King purposely chose not to reveal what Herb looked like, resulting in annoyance among its patrons. In a Super Bowl XX
Super Bowl XX
Super Bowl XX was an American football championship game played on January 26, 1986 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1985 regular season...
commercial, Burger King finally revealed Herb as a bespectacled nerd in an ill-fitting suit. Herb toured stores across the country, appeared on The Today Show, and served as a guest timekeeper during WrestleMania 2
WrestleMania 2
WrestleMania 2 was the second annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation...
. The campaign had little impact on sales and was quickly dropped. According to Advertising Age
Advertising Age
Advertising Age is a magazine, delivering news, analysis and data on marketing and media. The magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930...
magazine, the Herb campaign was the "most elaborate advertising flop of the decade." Other 1980s ad campaigns such as "This is a Burger King town", "Fast food for fast times", and "We do it like you'd do it" had little more success.
In the early 1990s, Burger King advertised introduced its new dinner offering, dinner baskets and table service, with the "BK Tee Vee" (or "BKTV") ad campaign. The taglines for the campaign were "BK Tee Vee... I Love this Place!" and "Your Way Right Away!", which featured Dan Cortese
Dan Cortese
Daniel James "Dan" Cortese ; born September 14, 1967) is an American actor, director and spokesperson. He is known for his roles as Perry Rollins on Veronica's Closet and as Vic Meladeo on What I Like About You.-Early life:...
as "Dan: The Whopper Man." Burger King's continued lack of a successful advertising campaign during the 1980s and 1990s, in contrast to McDonald's usually memorable slogans and jingles, led to ridicule by the advertising community and the general public.
In September 2002, Burger King introduced its 99¢ Value Menu
Value menu
A value menu is a group of menu items at a fast food restaurant that are designed to be the least expensive items available. In the US, the items are usually priced between $0.99 and $1.49. They are offered together at a lower price than they would cost individually. Value meals are a common...
. The menu was in response to Wendy's
Wendy's
Wendy's is an international fast food chain restaurant founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The company decided to move its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. It has been owned by Triarc since 2008...
99¢ Value Menu and included a grilled sourdough burger, a bacon cheeseburger, french fries, onion rings, soft drinks, three flavors of ice cream shakes; beef chili, two types of tacos; chicken tenders, baked potatoes and a garden salad. The ads featured the comedian Adam Corolla as the voice of BK's drive thru. Since then many of the items have been removed from the menu or have been made an optional menu item, and the menu has become the BK Value Menu with prices starting at a dollar (US).
Agencies
General Market- 1958–68 - Hume, Smith and Mickelberry
- 1968–76 - BBDOBBDOBBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency began in 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company, and later in 1928, through a merger of BDO and Batten Co. the agency became BBDO...
- 1976–87 - J. Walter ThompsonJWTJWT is one of the largest advertising agencies in the United States and the fourth-largest in the world. It is one of the key companies of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group and is headquartered in New York. The global agency is led by Worldwide Chairman and Global CEO Bob Jeffrey who took over the...
- 1987–89 - N.W. Ayer
- 1988 - Einsom-Freeman and August, Bishop and Meier
- 1989–94 - D'Arcy Masius Benton & BowlesD'Arcy Masius Benton & BowlesD'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles was an advertising agency in the United States with worldwide subsidiaries.DMB&B was established in November 1985 by the merger of the Benton & Bowles and D'Arcy-MacManus Masius advertising agencies...
(DMB&B), Saatchi & SaatchiSaatchi & SaatchiSaatchi & Saatchi is a global advertising agency network with 140 offices in 80 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in London in 1970 but now headquartered in New York. The parent company of the agency group was known as Saatchi & Saatchi PLC from 1976 to 1994, was listed on the London... - 1994–2001 - Lowe, Lintas & PartnersLowe WorldwideLowe and Partners is an international advertising agency headquartered in London. The Agency is a unit of the Interpublic Group, one of the world's largest advertising agency holding companies...
- General Market and Kids Club - 2001–2002 - McCann-Erickson
- 2002–2003 - AMOEBA, Inc.
- September 2002 - Deutsch, Inc. for introduction of BK 99¢ Value Menu.
- 2003–2004 - Young & Rubicam, Inc.
- 2004–2011 - Crispin Porter & Bogusky
- 2011 - McGarryBowen
African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
market
- 1983–present - UniWorld Group, Inc.
Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
market
- 1989-2009 - Bromley CommunicationsPublicisPublicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and communications company, headquartered in Paris, France. It is one of the world's three largest advertising holding companies . Its current president is Maurice Lévy. Publicis Groupe S.A...
- 2009–present - LatinWorksLatinWorksLatinWorks is a full-service advertising agency based in Austin, Texas, with satellite offices in Dallas, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan, and is part of the Omnicom Group. The company was founded in 1998 by Manny Flores and Alejandro Ruelas...
Internet
- 2001 – June 2008 - VML, Inc.VML, Inc.VML is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, with principal offices in New York City, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston, London, Milan, Geneva, Budapest, Auckland, Melbourne and Bogotá...
- July 2008 – 2011 - Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Children's
- 1989–1994: Saatchi & SaatchiSaatchi & SaatchiSaatchi & Saatchi is a global advertising agency network with 140 offices in 80 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in London in 1970 but now headquartered in New York. The parent company of the agency group was known as Saatchi & Saatchi PLC from 1976 to 1994, was listed on the London...
Advertising - 1994–2001: Lowe, Lintas & Partners
- 2001–2010: Campbell MithunCampbell MithunCampbell Mithun is an advertising and marketing firm, founded in 1933 by Ralph Campbell and Ray Mithun. It is now part of Interpublic Group of Communication Companies. The core business is consumer advertising through radio, TV, print, digital, mobile and out-of-home...
- Present: Pitch, Inc.
Most recent campaigns
Shortly after the acquisition of Burger King by TPG Capital in 2002, its newly hired CEO, former Darden RestaurantsDarden Restaurants
Darden Restaurants, Inc. is a multi-brand restaurant operator headquartered in an unincorporated area in Orange County, Florida, near Orlando. The firm owns several casual dining restaurant chains, most notably Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and Red Lobster...
executive Bradley (Brad) Blum
Brad Blum
Brad Blum was the CEO of Burger King from December 2002 to July 2, 2004. He joined the company from Darden Restaurants where he had headed the Olive Garden unit, but left after only 18 months citing strategic differences with Burger King's board. Blum's successor, Greg Brenneman, was appointed on...
, set about turning around fortunes of the company by initiating an overhaul its flailing advertising programs. One of the first moves by the company was to reinstate its famous Have it your way slogan as the corporate motto. BK handed the effort off to its new advertising agency, Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Crispin Porter + Bogusky , a member of publicly-traded MDC Partners, is an advertising agency that currently employs around 1,000 people. It was founded in 1965 by Sam Crispin.. Crispin then became partners with Chuck Porter and Alex Bogusky...
(abbreviated as CP+B). CP+B was known for having a hip, subversive tack when creating campaigns for its clients, exactly what BK was looking for.
CP+B set about revamping BK's image with a complete top to bottom overhaul of how the company marketed itself to the public. Everything from the cups and bags to the company logo was completely redesigned with the intent to give BK a hip, culturally aware image that would appeal to modern sensibilities. Humorous statements, claims and product descriptions were placed on bags, product packaging and on in-store promotional materials, including a Burger King Bill of Rights that gave its customers the right to Have it Your Way. It also set about creating an advertising campaign that not only focused on television spots, but also print, web and product tie-ins.
One of it major strategies was to revive the Burger King
The Burger King
The Burger King was a character created as the advertising mascot for the international fast-food restaurant franchise Burger King who became famous in numerous television commercials, including the Burger King Kingdom. The first iteration of the King was part of Burger King sign at the first store...
character used during BKs 1970s/1980s Burger King Kingdom
Burger King Kingdom
The Burger King Kingdom is a fantasy world associated with Burger King.-History:The Burger King Kingdom was the name of Burger King's answer to McDonaldland during the mid-1970s...
advertising campaign. The new character was redesigned as a caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
d variation now simply called the Burger King or just the King. The new incarnation replaced the singing and dancing Magical Burger King with a non-speaking mime-like actor wearing an over-sized, grinning plastic mask resembling the original actor who played King. Employing the practice of viral marketing
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
, CP+B's ads generated significant word of mouth and for its new use of what has been became known as the Creepy King persona, an appellation that CP+B adopted for use in newer ads.
In April 2009, a CP+B advertisement for Burger King's "Texican burger" was pulled from the air after causing an international uproar over insults to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
The King
The humor of the "Creepy King" is derived from the fact that he is a medieval king with a disproportionately large plastic head whose smiling facial expression never changes and who turns up unexpectedly and in unusual or anachronistic locations. The "Creepy King" was first used to advertise the chain's breakfast sandwiches. The King presented a breakfast product to unsuspecting consumers in unexpected places such as their own bedroom or in their front yards. The new breakfast slogan "Wake up with the King" also began showing up in these ads. The farcical nature of the Burger King centered advertisements inspired an internet memeInternet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
where the King is photoshopped
Photo manipulation
Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception , through analog or digital means.- Types of digital photo manipulation :...
into unusual situations that are either comical or menacing, many times followed with the phrase Where is your God now?.
On August 19, 2011, the company announced that it would no longer retain "the king" in advertising.
Other media
- Movie Deal
- In October 2006, it was announce that BK and CP+B were soliciting a movie deal for a film called Above the King the film is reported to be a comedy about a teen misfit who lives in an apartment above a Burger King restaurant and has an unlikely friendship with an aristocrat.
- Advergames
- In November 2006, Burger Kings began selling three advergamingAdvergamingAdvergaming is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. The term "advergames" was coined in January 2000 by Anthony Giallourakis, and later mentioned by Wireds "Jargon Watch" column in 2001...
titles for the XboxXboxThe Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
(entitled Sneak KingSneak KingSneak King is an advergaming title from Burger King for the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles. On November 19, 2006, Burger King started selling it for an additional $3.99 USD with any value meal...
, Pocketbike RacerPocketBike RacerPocketbike Racer is an advergaming title from Burger King for the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles. On November 19, 2006, Burger King started selling it for an additional $3.99 USD with any value meal...
and Big Bumpin'Big Bumpin'Big Bumpin' is an advergaming title from Burger King for the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles. published by King Games & developed by Blitz Games. On November 19, 2006, Burger King started selling it for an additional $3.99 USD with any value meal...
) for an additional $3.99 each with any value meal. By the end of December, 2006, The games had sold more than 2 million copies, placing them as one of the top selling games along with another Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
hit, Gears of WarGears of WarGears of War is a military science fiction third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios...
.
Evolution of the company logo
The first logo that Burger King used was a simple text version which was introduced July 28, 1953. It was expanded upon by the addition of the first graphical representation of the Burger KingThe Burger King
The Burger King was a character created as the advertising mascot for the international fast-food restaurant franchise Burger King who became famous in numerous television commercials, including the Burger King Kingdom. The first iteration of the King was part of Burger King sign at the first store...
character in the 1960s and can be described as the Sitting King logo, as the Burger King character is shown sitting atop the sign holding a beverage. The sign has several versions, with the King either sitting atop a hamburger or on an inverted trapezoid
Trapezoid
In Euclidean geometry, a convex quadrilateral with one pair of parallel sides is referred to as a trapezoid in American English and as a trapezium in English outside North America. A trapezoid with vertices ABCD is denoted...
with the company name along the top and its motto Home of the Whopper below it; some signs did not include the King and only had the inverted trapezoid. This logo was used in one form or another until May 1, 1969 when the famous Burger King "bun halves" logo made its debut, and has continued in one form or another until the current day. As implied by its name, the logo is meant to resemble a hamburger
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
; the logo had two orange semi-circular "buns" surrounding the name, which was the "meat" of the logo. On May 1, 1994 BK updated the logo with a graphical tightening, replacing the aging "bulging" font with a smoother font with rounded edges.
The current BK "blue crescent" logo was designed by the New York-based Sterling Group and made its official debut on July 1, 1999. The new Burger King logo is a stylized version of the original "bun halves" logo. BK changed the color of the restaurant's name from red to burgundy, while leaving them sandwiched between two yellow bun halves. The new logo also tilts the bun halves and the font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
on an axis, has a smaller "bun" motif and wraps the burger with a blue crescent, giving it a more circular
Circular
Circular is a basic geometric shape such as a Circle.Circular may also refer to:-Documents:*Circular note, a document request by a bank to its foreign correspondents to pay a specified sum of money to a named person...
appearance. Most restaurants did not acquire newer signs with the new logo, menus, and drive-thru ordering speakers until 2001. Again, all secondary signage was updated with the new logo and sharp type face, and all sign posts were repainted to match the blue coloring of the new crescent from their original black.
International variations
The Hungry Jack's logo is based on the Burger King "bun halves" design. HJ currently uses a variation of the second generation "bun halves" logo, featuring the smoother font used in the Burger King logo from 1994. In Arabic speaking countries the logo is mirrored and uses characters from the Arabic alphabetArabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
(برغر كينغ); otherwise the logo is identical to the "blue crescent" logo used in the west. With the expansion of the company inside Russia with its first store in Moscow, Burger King added another version of its logo that used non-Latin text, now in the Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
(Бypгep Kинг).
Children's
To establish a brand identity for its youth oriented products, Burger King created a separate logo for its children's products with the introduction of its Burger King Kid's Club in 1990. The original logo, an inverted triangle with a blue "sign", was part of the new kid's program and was used in television and print advertising; signage; and toy and meal packaging. Through the life of the program they changed the logo several times and introduced several local versions in its international market. In 1996, the company replaced the original logo with one that resembled its corporate logo, the "bun halves" logo. The new logo featured the original Burger King text logo on a single line with the kids' club text under it on two lines.The most current logo in North America is for its Club BK program which was phased in during July 2008. In the countries where the BK Kid's Club is still an active promotion, BK and its franchises still use the "blue crescent" iteration that was introduced at the time the company modified its logo to the current corporate logo.
Evolution of the logos used for the children's advertising programs in the US and abroad.
Non-product oriented advertising
Over the years BK has introduced advertising that emphasized value or hours of operation. The first of these was in 1983 when BK began encouraging its stores to keep their drive thru open past midnight. At the time most QSR locations closed around 10 or 11 p.m. In the summer of 2007, BK again began advertising later hours in response to similar late night programs from Wendy's and McDonald's.In 1989 Burger King restaurants introduced "King Deals", daily specials that were offered for 99¢ with the slogan At Burger King, you not only get change, you get change. The schedule was Sunday – Whopper Junior, Monday – Big King, Tuesday – Chicken Sandwich, Wednesday – Whopper, Thursday – Bacon Cheeseburger, Friday – Fish Sandwich, and Saturday – Double Cheeseburger.
United States
Starting in the 1970s and running into the 1980s, BK had a generic Kids' Club that gave children coupons for selected products each month, a small toy that rotated on a monthly or weekly basis, and an extra surprise if it was the child's birthday. Burger King has been known for its longtime giveaway of free paper crowns, which are sometimes redesigned to match any promotions the restaurant may be running.The animated cartoons
The original advertising featured a small, animated King. The King would travel around on a modified chopperChopper (motorcycle)
A chopper is a type of motorcycle that was either modified from an original motorcycle design or built from scratch to have a hand-crafted appearance. The main features of a chopper that make it stand out are its longer frame design accompanied by a stretch front end...
with a throne
Throne
A throne is the official chair or seat upon which a monarch is seated on state or ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the monarchy or the Crown itself, an instance of metonymy, and is also used in many expressions such as "the power behind the...
as the seat and visit a BK and present the children with small gifts. The tag line was "Burger King: Where kids are King!"
The "Marvelous Magical Burger King"
The original animated King was soon replaced by the "Marvelous Magical Burger King," a red-bearded king, acted out by actor-singer Richard "Dick" Gjonola, who ruled the Burger King KingdomBurger King Kingdom
The Burger King Kingdom is a fantasy world associated with Burger King.-History:The Burger King Kingdom was the name of Burger King's answer to McDonaldland during the mid-1970s...
and performed magic tricks (mostly sleight-of-hand, but sometimes relying on camera tricks). This campaign paralleled McDonald's McDonaldland
McDonaldland
McDonaldland was a fantasy world used in the marketing for McDonald's restaurants. It was based on the "total concept and feel" of Sid and Marty Krofft's H.R. Pufnstuf television program. McDonaldland was inhabited by Ronald McDonald and other characters...
children's commercials, which featured "Ronald McDonald
Ronald McDonald
Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. In television commercials, the clown inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland, and has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and...
," "The Hamburglar," and "Mayor McCheese," along with other characters and mascots.
Other characters in the Burger King Kingdom included:
- "The Duke of Doubt," the King's arch nemesis, who constantly tried to prove that the King's magic was not real; he always failed, and each commercial that featured him ended with the tag-line, "No doubt about it, Duke."
- The "Burger Thing," a large, three-dimensional painting of a hamburger that talked.
- "Sir Shake-A-Lot," a knight, whose name was drawn from the fact that he was often literally physically shaking, with a craving for Burger King milkshakes and armor made of BK Cups. (Sir Shake-A-Lot's name was a take-off on Sir Lancelot, and his constant shaking was sometimes misinterpreted as being a symptom of hypoglycemiaHypoglycemiaHypoglycemia or hypoglycæmia is the medical term for a state produced by a lower than normal level of blood glucose. The term literally means "under-sweet blood"...
from the sugar content of Burger King milkshakes.) - The "Wizard of Fries," a robot who could "multifry," or generated French fries whenever given a sample.
Kids's meal offerings
Originally, BK would only offer a kids' meal when it had a cross promotion with a children's orientated product such as a film or a holiday. With the success of McDonald's Happy MealHappy Meal
A "Happy Meal" is a meal specifically marketed at children, sold at the fast-food chain McDonald's since June 1979. A toy is typically included with the food, both of which are usually contained in a small box or paper bag with the McDonald's logo....
in the late 1970s, BK introduced its own permanent kids meal, called the Kids' Meal Pack, in 1985 with a He-Man
He-Man
He-Man is a fictional heroic character featured in the Masters of the Universe media franchise. In most variations, he is the alter ego of Prince Adam...
cross promotion. In June 1999 BK introduced the Big Kids' Meal aimed at the preteen
Preteen
Preadolescence is a stage of human development following early childhood and prior to adolescence. It may be defined as ending with the beginning of puberty or with the beginning of the teenage stage, the time frames in which adolescence is considered to begin. In terms of age in years,...
market with larger portions, which forced McDonald's to introduce its Mighty Kids Meal.
The original packaging for the Kids' Meal Pack was similar to McDonald's Happy Meal, a paperboard
Paperboard
Paperboard is a thick paper based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker than paper. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a basis weight above 224 g/m2, but there are exceptions. Paperboard can be single...
box with colorful graphics featuring games and BK characters or promotional images from product tie-ins. With the introduction of the Burger King Kids Club, the packaging was changed to a less expensive, multi-compartment white paper bag that had a cellophane
Cellophane
Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria and water makes it useful for food packaging...
window that displayed the toy prominently on the front of the bag and had the food in the second, larger compartment. When the Big Kids' meal was introduced, BK changed its regular Kids' meal packaging to smaller, standard single compartment bag with the Burger King Kids Club Gang in the graphics and they added a second, larger brown paper bag with graphics targeting at the preteen market for the Big Kids Meal. Eventually both bags were replaced with a single white paper bag the same size as the Big Kids' meal packaging with the preteen oriented graphics.
Kids Club
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. The Burger King Kids Club Gang, a group of multi-ethnic fictional characters, were created to promote the Burger King Kids Club meal by providing a group of stylized characters that most kids could associate with, e.g. the brain, the artist, etc.
The members of the gang were:
- Kid Vid, a Caucasian male who loved video games and technology; he was the leader of the group.
- Boomer, a sports loving Caucasian tomboyTomboyA tomboy is a girl who exhibits characteristics or behaviors considered typical of the gender role of a boy, including the wearing of typically masculine-oriented clothes and engaging in games and activities that are often physical in nature, and which are considered in many cultures to be the...
with red hair tied into a ponytail. - I.Q., a male Caucasian nerdNerdNerd is a derogatory slang term for an intelligent but socially awkward and obsessive person who spends time on unpopular or obscure pursuits, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Nerds are considered to be awkward, shy, and unattractive...
who wore red glassesGlassesGlasses, also known as eyeglasses , spectacles or simply specs , are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes. They are normally used for vision correction or eye protection. Safety glasses are a kind of eye protection against flying debris or against visible and near visible light or...
, a green lab coat, and a pocket protectorPocket protectorA pocket protector is a sheath designed to hold writing instruments and other small implements, such as slide rules, while preventing them from damaging the wearer's shirt pocket...
. - Jaws, a tall African-American male with an insatiable appetite.
- J.D., a dog and the group's mascotMascotThe term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
. - Lingo, a multi-lingual, HispanicHispanicHispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
male who liked art and carried an easel. - Snaps, a blonde Caucasian female who always carried her cameraCameraA camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
. - Wheels, a Caucasian paraplegic male in a wheelchairWheelchairA wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
.
- Jazz, an AsianAsian peopleAsian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
girl who loved music and sported a beretBeretA beret is a soft, round, flat-crowned hat, designated a "cap", usually of woven, hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, or wool felt, or acrylic fiber....
.
Each of the characters' signatures reflected their personality, e.g. Boomer signed her name with a football
Football (ball)
A football is an inflated ball used to play one of the various sports known as football.The first balls were made of natural materials, such as an inflated pig bladder, sometimes inside a leather cover...
and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
for the "O"s.
Furthermore, Burger King created a "Kids Club" in which club members receive an annual mailing in the month of their birthday that contains games, product information, and a birthday gift in the form of a coupon for a free Kids' Meal. Even though the BK Kids' Club Gang has been discontinued in the US, the club itself continues in operation to this day and is the largest club of its kind in North America. Additionally, they can still be seen on some playground signs and decorations in some locations. The club has been closed in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
The Burger King Kids Club had a logo that was used from 1994–2001. The logo was a variation in the classic "Bun Halves" logo that BK introduced in 1969 and revised in 1994. It used the two "bun halves" like the main BK logo but the Burger King name was on one line under the top half of the bun, while the words Kids Club were on two lines below the BK name in a larger, different style font.
The Burger King stores in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
are still using the BK Kid's Club Gang for its children's advertising, though IQ and Jazz are absent.
Honbatz
Preteen
Preadolescence is a stage of human development following early childhood and prior to adolescence. It may be defined as ending with the beginning of puberty or with the beginning of the teenage stage, the time frames in which adolescence is considered to begin. In terms of age in years,...
market. Each Honbatz has a personality that you would find in modern elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
: the class clown, the brain or the rebellious one.
The new group consisted of:
- Mixmax, a punk who likes showing off;
- Thisorthat, a green monster that likes to eat everything but cannot decide where to start;
- Bonny, the studious one and the only girl in the group;
- Chomp, an intimidating, large Honbatz, who is really a big softie that wants to fit in;
- the Eeeps, a group of small, red, ketchup-craving creatures.
They have appeared in numerous ads, and are still used in some European markets and New Zealand.
Return of the King
Tie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
kids advertising. The new (old) King is portrayed as a sarcastic type who sometimes gets in trouble for his mischief making adventures.
Restrictions on children's advertising
On 12 September 2007, Burger King announced that it was joining the The Council of Better Business BureausBetter Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau , founded in 1912, is a corporation consisting of several private business franchises of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work through their parent corporation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus .The Better Business Bureau, through...
Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. The program, a voluntary self-regulation program designed to shift advertising messages aimed at children so that they encourage healthier eating habits and lifestyles. As part of this new initiative, BKC has stated that it will restrict advertising to children under 12 that uses third-party licensed characters to Kids Meals that meet its Nutrition Guidelines, refrain from advertising in elementary schools and from product placement in media primarily aimed at children under 12, promote Kids Meals that meet its Nutrition Guidelines as set forth on its web site and promote healthy lifestyles and healthy dietary choices in its advertising. In response several groups, including the CSPI, lauded the move as guarded good news.
Australia
Hungry Jack's Kids Club mascots are unique to the Australian franchisee, as opposed to other international locations that use one the two existing kid's mascots, the Burger King Kids' Club or the Honbatz.Europe
In Europe, the Kids Meal bag features two youngsters, a boy and a girl, on the packaging and advertisements. The names of the characters are not given.In Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Burger Kings main slogan is "Grillat är godast, bara på Burger King" which translates to "Grilled is tastier, only at Burger King".
Cross promotions
- AOLAOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
- DirecTVDirecTVDirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
- KonamiKonamiis a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
- Major League Baseball Players AssociationMajor League Baseball Players AssociationThe Major League Baseball Players Association is the union of professional major-league baseball players.-History of MLBPA:The MLBPA was not the first attempt to unionize baseball players...
- Maxim Magazine Hometown Hotties
- A FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
based section on the US Burger King website that allows visitors to engage in a "conversation" with some of the pin-up girlPin-up girlA pin-up girl, also known as a pin-up model, is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as popular culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display, e.g. meant to be "pinned-up" on a wall...
s from Maxim's Hometown Hotties models as well as drivers from Waltrip Racing. It operates in a manner similar to the CP+B Sith Sense site.- MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
cross promo
- MTV
- In December 2005, Burger King teamed with MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
for a "Have It Your Way" rap contest. Burger King and MTV selected Anthony DeSean Stokes out of 400 entries to star in a commercial. Part of his winning rap was "You can have it your way, there's nothin' to it / If you can dream it, you can do it!" The commercial ran for a short time, exclusively on MTV.- NASCARNASCARThe National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
- Dale EarnhardtDale EarnhardtRalph Dale Earnhardt, Sr. was an American race car driver, best known for his involvement in stock car racing for NASCAR...
- Joe NemechekJoe NemechekJoseph Frank Nemechek III is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and owner of NEMCO Motorsports. He won the 1992 Busch Series championship...
's 87 Chevrolet in the mid-1990s - Michael Waltrip Racing BK co-sponsored the 00 Toyota driven by David ReutimannDavid ReutimannEmil David Reutimann is the driver the #00 Aaron's Dream Machine/Tums/Best Western Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series...
with Domino's PizzaDomino's PizzaDomino's Pizza, Inc. is an international pizza delivery corporation headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America. Founded in 1960, Domino's is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States and has over 9,000 corporate and franchised stores in 60 countries and all 50 U.S....
in 2007, and Bill ElliottBill ElliottWilliam Clyde "Bill" Elliott , also known as Awesome Bill from Dawsonville or Million Dollar Bill, is a part-time driver and former champion of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Elliott was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America on August 15, 2007. He won the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup...
(part time) in 2006. - Tony StewartTony StewartAnthony Wayne "Tony" Stewart is an American auto racing driver and owner. Throughout his racing career, Stewart has won titles in Indy cars and stock cars as well as midget, sprint and USAC Silver Crown cars, giving him the recognition of "one of the finest racers of his generation."Stewart...
(2009-)
- Dale Earnhardt
- Formula OneFormula OneFormula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
- SauberSauberSauber F1 Team is a Swiss Formula One team. It was founded in the 1970s by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in 1993....
(minimal sponsorship that began at the 2010 European Grand Prix2010 European Grand PrixThe 2010 European Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on the June 27, 2010 at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain. The race, contested over 57 laps, was the ninth round of the 2010 Formula One season. It was won by Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing, who led every lap of the...
)
- Sauber
- NFLNational Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
- Jacksonville JaguarsJacksonville JaguarsThe Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- NintendoNintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
- MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Windows 7 and XboxXboxThe Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
- NASCAR
Celebrity spokespersons
BK has been known to hire celebrities to pitch their products in ads. One of it most famous CSP issues was with the then unknown Sarah Michelle GellarSarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze , known professionally by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar , is an American actress, singer and executive producer...
. Ms. Gellar, in 1981 at the age of four, appeared in a series of commercials that disparaged the size McDonald's hamburgers, claiming them to be 20% smaller than BK burgers. These commercials, some of the first to mention a fast food competitor in a TV ad, angered the McDonald's Corporation executives who in turn sued BK, their ad agency at the time the J. Walter Thompson Company
JWT
JWT is one of the largest advertising agencies in the United States and the fourth-largest in the world. It is one of the key companies of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group and is headquartered in New York. The global agency is led by Worldwide Chairman and Global CEO Bob Jeffrey who took over the...
and Ms. Gellar. The laws suit was eventually settled in 1982 for an undisclosed sum.
A 2005–2006 viral ad campaign by CP+B had model\actress Brooke Burke
Brooke Burke
Brooke Burke Charvet , better known by her maiden name, Brooke Burke, is an actress, dancer, model and television personality...
and The King going through a mock celebrity courtship. The campaign had fake paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
photos and videos show up in gossip columns and celebrity gossip web sites across the internet. The courtship followed their meeting on the set of the Whopperettes ad, dating, risqué shots of them at the beach with her topless (no nudity), an engagement and summary break up. She also appears as a playable character and cover girl
Cover girl
A cover girl is a woman whose photograph features on the front cover of a magazine. She may be a model, celebrity or entertainer. The term would generally not be used to describe a casual, once-off appearance by a person on the cover of a magazine....
in the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
games PocketBike Racer
PocketBike Racer
Pocketbike Racer is an advergaming title from Burger King for the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles. On November 19, 2006, Burger King started selling it for an additional $3.99 USD with any value meal...
and Big Bumpin'
Big Bumpin'
Big Bumpin' is an advergaming title from Burger King for the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles. published by King Games & developed by Blitz Games. On November 19, 2006, Burger King started selling it for an additional $3.99 USD with any value meal...
.
In 2009, CP+B and Cow PR launched the Burger King Flame fragrance in the UK, which featured Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan , known professionally as Piers Morgan, is a British journalist and television presenter. He is editorial director of First News, a national newspaper for children....
fronting both a poster campaign and viral video.
Media Tie-ins
Burger King's first major tie-in, and one of the first tie-ins for the QSR industry, was with the 1977 film Star WarsStar Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
(later renamed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
) in which BK sold a set of glasses featuring the main characters from the film. From that point on a competition between the major QSR chains became one of the cornerstones of advertising in the fast food industry. BK's early success was overshadowed by the joint venture between McDonald's and Disney in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1994 Burger King reversed the situation with its own ten film contract with Disney, a venture that led to great success as this period in Disney films was considered to be Disney's second Golden Age. BK was able to promote such top ten films such as Aladdin (1992), Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
(1991), The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
(1994) and Toy Story
Toy Story
Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI. The film was directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen...
(1995). These cross promotions were some of the most successful in the industry, rivaled only by McDonald's\Ty Beanie Babies cross-promotion in 1999–2000.
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman and CEO, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....
for the other two films in the original Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, based on a story by George Lucas, was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan...
(1980) and Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
(1984), as well as the last film of the second trilogy, Revenge of the Sith (2005). BK lost the first run tie-in rights to the first two movies of the second trilogy, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is a 1999 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the fourth film to be released in the Star Wars saga, as the first of a three-part prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy, as well as the first film in the saga in terms...
(1999) and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is a 2002 American epic space opera film directed by George Lucas and written by Lucas and Jonathan Hales. It is the fifth film to be released in the Star Wars saga and the second in terms of the series' internal chronology...
(2002), to Yum! Brands
Yum! Brands
Yum! Brands, Inc. or Yum! is a United States-based Fortune 500 corporation. Yum! operates or licenses Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and WingStreet restaurants worldwide....
(KFC
KFC
KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global...
, Taco Bell
Taco Bell
Taco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., which serves American-adapted Mexican food. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "Value Menu" items...
et al.) but had an extensive tie-in with the DVD release of the two trilogies in 2006. In 2008, Burger King joined with Lucasfilm and Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. Amblin is only a production company, and has never distributed its own movies, nor has it fully financed its...
for the release of the fourth Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Another long running Burger King tie-in partnership has been with 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
's property The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. BK's first promotion with Fox began in 1990, when the show became a series after three years as a short segment on The Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show was an American television variety show, hosted by British comedian and onetime pop singer Tracey Ullman. It debuted on April 5, 1987 as the Fox network's second primetime series after Married... with Children, and ran until May 26, 1990. The show blended sketch comedy shorts...
, and was a set of 8 to 12 in (20.3 to 30.5 cm) dolls featuring each member of the Simpsons family. Other Simpsons/BK promotions included a British Kid's Club toy in 1998, 2000 and 2001; a Halloween themed Kid's Club toy in 2001 and 2002; A summertime special at Hungry Jack's in 2001 and The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress...
in 2007. As part of the Promotion for the Simpsons Movie, CP+B produced a commercial with a Simpsons version of the King with yellow skin, overbite and four fingers as well as a web site that allowed people to make a "Simpsonized" version of themselves from uploaded pictures.
See also
- Fast food advertisingFast food advertisingFast food advertising is the promotion of fast food products and ventures through a variety of media. Fast food advertising campaigns are not as highly regulated as some other products, such as those imposed on alcohol advertising, but there are often public calls for their promotion to be...
- Burger King KingdomBurger King KingdomThe Burger King Kingdom is a fantasy world associated with Burger King.-History:The Burger King Kingdom was the name of Burger King's answer to McDonaldland during the mid-1970s...
- McDonald's advertising