Aired: March 2010
Channel: ESPN, TNT, TBS & more
Appeal: Humor
Ok. So I lied in a previous post. Burger King was actually my favorite fastfood place to go as a kid. Could you blame me? Ronald Mcdonald was (and still is) an extremely creepy looking clown. The bright white face with yellow and red clothes could send Freddy Krueger running.This was before the days of the Burger King mascot. For future references I will simply refer to him as The King.
A recent BK ad I spotted starring The King was one like no other I had ever come across. In advertising there is a marketing strategy which uses a negative appeal towards another company to make the advertisors product appear superior. I've seen this done countless times, especially in paper towel and car commercials. They typically won't waste time; they come straight out and say which other company's theirs is better than. Other commercials are a little more subtle like in my previous post, Battle of the Fruit. It took a little bit of thinking on the viewer's side to comprehend that the blackberry and the apple actually represented the companies: Blackberry and Macintosh. However, in this latest Burger King commercial, the message not only compliments McDonald's Sausage McMuffin sandwich but frankly states that BK is stealing their exact idea/recipe! Check it out.
The ad begins with The King dressed in all black hopping over the fence at McDonald's Head Quarters. We are then taken inside where The King is rumaging through a McDonald's file cabinet. He takes out the blue print of the McDonald's Sausage McMuffin. A voiceover comes over and states, "It’s not that original, but it’s super affordable" as The King fleas the scene on a motorcycle. I really enjoyed this ad because instead of taking McDonald's idea and trying to pass it off as their own, BK was upfront about it. Their aim was basically to announce to anyone who likes that sandwich that it is now available at McDonld's greatest competitor.
