Burger King Dumps The Creepy King

[Crossroads Inc.]

Under the Sad But True headlines.

Fast-food chain Burger King is making a 180 degree shift in its marketing, with a decision to drop its "King" mascot and focus on — sit down before you read this! — product.

For years, Burger King had placed its bets on edgy commercials by creative powerhouse Crispin Porter + Bogusky, targeting men in their teens and 20s. Crispin's campaigns got a lot of attention, and plaudits from the advertising community. Unfortunately, however, advertising awards don't necessarily translate into sales, and Burger King has been badly lagging main rival McDonald's. According to consulting firm Technomic, Burger King's same-store sales declined 6% in the first quarter; compare that to a 3% rise for Mc Donald's.



This discrepancy in performance is not the result of McDonald's having more "creative" advertising or a hipper mascot (Ronald Mc Donald is many things — hip he's not). But while Burger King was trying to sell consumers an edgy brand image, McDonald's focused on something much more mundane: selling burgers, fries and coffee. The rest is marketing history.

Now, under new ownership, and with a new management and marketing team, Burger King is focusing on what matters: updating the stores, fixing its food and changing its image. As Alex Maccedo, SVP, marketing, put it to USA Today: "People want a reason to go back to Burger King ... There are no plans to bring the King back anytime soon."

Along with new management, Burger King has also hired a new ad agency, McGarry Bowen. Mc Garry's ads are often derided in ad industry circles as conventional, formulaic and unhip. The criticism isn't entirely unjustified ... but who cares? Last I heard, advertising is not about creating art house shorts; it's about selling stuff. Against that standard, McGarry's work tends to perform well. A new campaign by McGarry, launching this weekend, will introduce the California Whopper, made with guacamole.

Whether the new burger will catch on remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: the marketing campaign will give it a shot at success. The entire TV commercial will focus single-mindedly on sights and sounds of the burger's ingredients being washed and diced.

And amidst all this slicing and dicing, "the King" finds himself like Charles I and Louis XVI ... a head shorter.

All I have to say is the Burger world will seem a bit more empty now that the only Rival to Ronald is gone.

[Broomstick]

Yay! Good riddance to the creepy king I say - I've loathed him from the first.

[StarSword]

Other burger chains do just fine without weird mascots. I'd rather go to a Five Guys than a Burger King or McDonalds any day.

[Lord Zentei]

I wonder whether they'll get a new mascot to replace the old, or whether they'll just make do without one.

[Isolder74]

Yah, no more creapy King! Now if we can just get rid of the Jack In the Box guy and life will be much better!

[Losonti Tokash]

Awww, he was actually a mascot I liked for how surreal it was.

[Darth Fanboy]

The king jumped the Shark when they made those Xbox games for him.

Jack from Jack in the Box remains the greatest televised food pitchman.

[Ahriman238]

Where are all those posters/pics that had the Burger King accompanied by the words "Where is your God now?" I feel this thread needs one.

Honestly, I'm slightly more likely to eat at Burger King than McDonalds, but that's just because I like their burgers better. The respective mascots have nothing to do with it.

[Darth Fanboy]

Burger King has better food than McDonalds, but then again that's not saying much. I am literally within a three minute drive of McDonalds, Jack in the Box, Wendys, Carls Jr, and Burger King.

I usually drive the extra 15 minutes to In N Out when I want a drive through burger.

[loomer]

They got rid of him too soon - there hasn't been the spin-off movie featuring a serial killer dressed as The King yet. I mean, the ads are already halfway there, they just need him to pull a butcher's knife.

[Sriad]

I liked the King...

The king jumped the Shark when they made those Xbox games for him.

But this.

And I don't eat at Burger King (mostly) because I don't like shredded lettuce on burgers.

[Themightytom]

I love Burger king for it's flame broiled ness. Burger king has the material with which to brand itself consistently as the King Of burgers, but instead they chose random miscue after miscue.

I do not like their sissy cafe style location redesigns. They have all kinds of spindly little rails and furniture and cheep metal and plastic. The AC is cranked to insanity in virtually every Burger king I've been to as well.

I'm not saying crank up the heat and make us sit in armchairs, but play up the whole King of Burgers angle intelligently. That doesn't mean a weird surreal action figure guy having a competitive asthma attack with Darth Vader. take a page out of Dos Equis World's Most Interesting Man Schtick, and come up with a sense of style.

[Enigma]

While Burger King has better burgers compared to McD's, they both pale compared to Harvey's.

[Darth Fanboy]

When it comes to the major chains, I eat the breakfast items more than I eat the burger and Burger King's breakfast doesnt sit well figuratively and literally with me.

[ComradeClaus]

Too bad, I'll miss the freaKing guy. & i miss those risque fanservice laden commercials of his, like that one w/ the girls dressed country style & a guy w/ a coyboy hat played a guitar.

As for the Xbox games, never played em.

I stopped buying Taco Bell w/ they dropped the Chihuahua. Remember those Star WArs themed commercials w/ him, Colonel Sanders & The Pizza Hutt Chick? We need more of those again. & Bring back the Noid!

[Havok]

Wait. HOLD. THE. FUCK. ON.

Is this article telling me that McDonalds outsells Burger King because of the quality of it's food? Are you fucking shitting me?

McDonalds outsells Burger King because of sheer fucking inertia. That's it. Oh wait and the BILLIONS it spends advertising to the low income population of this country.

If it were simply about quality, Carl's Jr. would be on every corner. And In 'N Out would be storming out of the 5 or 6 states it is in.

It is ALL about advertising to low income families and communities and like, I said, the sheer inertia that is McDonalds. Introducing the California Whopper isn't going to topple McDonalds or get BK any closer to overtaking them than the King did. Even upping the quality of every item isn't going to do that.

And Jack puts the King and Ronald to shame on a daily basis because Jack gets fucking laid.

[tim31]

First day in California en route to Yosemite, we pulled off State 99 at Bakersfield for food, and Jack in the Box was the first place up. I'm with Hav, hands down.

[Broomstick]

McDonalds outsells Burger King because of sheer fucking inertia. That's it. Oh wait and the BILLIONS it spends advertising to the low income population of this country.

That, and at least around here, McD's is slightly cheaper than Burger King.

[Phantasee]

Up here, McDonald's is a little cheaper, and pretty much ubiquitous. Any major street and avenue in the city has a McDonald's on it at some point, so you almost always pass one no matter where you go. BKs are next to impossible to find unless you go looking for one.

Doesn't help that the few BKs near me aren't very good, despite BK's food usually being better on average.

Does this jive with anyone else's experience?

[Broomstick]

A couple years ago most of the BK shops around here evaporated when the owner, who had bought all of them up from competitors, went to jail for various drug charges. Since then, McD's has had MUCH more presence.

[Darth Wong]

Wait. HOLD. THE. FUCK. ON.

Is this article telling me that McDonalds outsells Burger King because of the quality of it's food? Are you fucking shitting me?

McDonalds outsells Burger King because of sheer fucking inertia. That's it. Oh wait and the BILLIONS it spends advertising to the low income population of this country.

If it were simply about quality, Carl's Jr. would be on every corner. And In 'N Out would be storming out of the 5 or 6 states it is in.

It is ALL about advertising to low income families and communities and like, I said, the sheer inertia that is McDonalds. Introducing the California Whopper isn't going to topple McDonalds or get BK any closer to overtaking them than the King did. Even upping the quality of every item isn't going to do that.

And Jack puts the King and Ronald to shame on a daily basis because Jack gets fucking laid.

Obviously, market presence and consumer habit has a lot to do with it. But while McDonald's food quality might be no better than before, it's possible that Burger King's food quality has gone down.

I haven't had a McDonald's burger for years, but I did have a Burger King burger recently, and I got the distinct impression that something was "off". In other words, it did seem distinctly crappier than I remembered from prior years. It's possible that my memory is simply unreliable in this case, but when a guy walks into a fast-food restaurant and walks out thinking "that was distinctly crappier than I expected", that is not a good thing for the store's prospects.

[Darth Wong]

You know, when we speak of McDonald's having crappy food, we imply that quality and desirability are necessarily the same thing. However, there are plenty of people out there who would rather have a crappy-ass greaseburger and oilfries than an exquisitely prepared lobster tail. The lobster tail is undoubtedly of higher quality, and certainly far greater market value, but some people just love crap.

[Flagg]

Sometimes you just feel like crap food. I know before my surgery I would crave certain crappy fast food items. Not so much since, thankfully since I could barely eat a Jr Whopper.

[Darth Lucifer]

Bye Bye, King, I'll miss you.

I still own my BK Xbox titles; the Sneak King game had a crappy control setup and was pretty lame, but the bumper car game and motorbike racing games were kind of fun.

[Themightytom]

I haven't had a McDonald's burger for years, but I did have a Burger King burger recently, and I got the distinct impression that something was "off". In other words, it did seem distinctly crappier than I remembered from prior years. It's possible that my memory is simply unreliable in this case, but when a guy walks into a fast-food restaurant and walks out thinking "that was distinctly crappier than I expected", that is not a good thing for the store's prospects.

Burger king can be hit or miss. They steam the buns to keep them poofy and fresh...and also because their cooking process is somewhat slower than McDonald's so they get backed up pretty quickly in the stores. Burger King stockpiles their supplies, like the buns to stay ahead of the crowd. They also will put the burgers in a warmer, supposedly not for more than fifteen minutes, but after like seven the bun, which has been alternately soaked and then dried out, tastes like crap.

i have noticed the meat pattie tastes thinner. I have a feeling they are using even leaner beef than they used to.

By the way I'm not obsessed with Burger king, I worked there, and at McDonalds, at the same time for a year during High School, and then later did a six month consumer research project. A few months ago I read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.
Oh My God I AM Obsessed