That New Burger King Ad: Classy or Clever?

Just in case you haven’t seen it:

We know, we never thought we’d be saying this either. pic.twitter.com/cVRMSLSDq6

— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) November 2, 2020

Coronavirus has undoubtedly changed us all, especially in the world of business. There’s a togetherness, and a willingness to support one another. This ad from Burger King just shows that.

Is the Burger King ad classy or clever?

Classy

Look, this is awesome – Burger King are encouraging their customers to support their ‘rivals’ (now food outlet buddies!) during these tough times.

It’s no secret that Burger King are rivals with McDonald’s – they’ve planned previous ad campaigns around a little friendly competition with Maccy D’s.

The tweet from BK has seen more than ten thousand replies, real mixed response. Lots of positive replies, but many calling out for Burger King to support local independent businesses, rather than multinational, multi-million pound chains.

Clever

I have one question for you in regards to the ad above, which business do you remember from the advert?

When I initially read the ad I thought, “fair play Burger King.”

But then I thought, “wait, what businesses did they say again?”

Guess what, I couldn’t remember.

For all our sakes, because I still have no idea really of the full list, here they are:

“KFC, Subway, Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hunt, Five Guys, Greggs, Taco Bell, Papa John’s, Leon… or any of the other independent food outlets…”

McDonald’s was the only one I remembered. Clever. A little bit of reverse psychology there. Burger King is really the one that sticks in your mind due to the surprise at them promoting their rivals.

On the point of people calling for BK to support small, local businesses. If Burger King did do this, would it have had the same effect? If it was an Andy’s Fish Bar or Bob’s Burgers mentioned in this advert instead of the likes of KFC and Pizza Hut, would it have gone viral? Maybe, actually.

This is another nod to being clever. You know the likes of McDonald’s, Domino’s and Five Guys, which makes this ad way more shocking. It grabs your attention. It’s unlike anything else we’ve ever seen before. It’s a huge talking point – Burger King giving free promotion to their rivals! It’s the equivalent of Tesco promoting Sainsbury’s in their stores.

So, is it classy or clever?

We’ll never know the true motive behind the Burger King ad, but from the outside, it’s an ad looking to help.

I think the design of the ad speaks volumes – it’s simple. There’s no huge budget thrown into this one, and no fancy designs. It’s ultimately a piece of paper with the encouraging words of Team Burger King UK on it. It’s like the words came from the heart – they just needed to come out, and they didn’t want to delay in any way by going through any design process and delaying it.

What I think (if you care)

I’m still torn – I think it’s great to see them supporting other businesses, and I do think they mean it. My cynical mind also tells me that there’s ulterior motive.

It would have been nice to release an alternative version of the ad too by listing some small food businesses across the UK.

Use this to remind us that businesses are struggling – let’s do what we can to help each other

Most importantly, take care of your family, friends and yourself, but also spare some generosity to support small, local businesses where you can.