Burger King: Encyclopedia II - Burger King - Advertising

Burger King - Advertising

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Burger King used a mascot of the same name to advertise their meals. The "Burger King" was a bearded king, who ruled the Burger King Kingdom, along with other characters such as The Duke of Doubt (his arch nemesis), Burger Thing (a large burger puppet), Sir Shakes-A-Lot (a knight with a craving for Burger King milkshakes), and the Wizard of Fries (a robot powered by french fries).

The 1990s saw Burger King advertising to their younger customers with the Burger King Kids Club featuring cartoon mascot Kid Vid, who embodied the cyberspace-obsessed decade and Wheels, a wheelchair-bound child.

The Burger King was brought back in late 2004, this time to advertise the chain's breakfast sandwiches. The commercials use a fiberglass head worn by an actor. Contrary to rumors, the head is not an original head used in individual stores in the 1970's. An ad executive actually ran across a plastic helium tank topper on eBay shaped like a king's head. It was after seeing this head that the executive came up with the idea for the BK king commercials.

The character then had a commercial as part of the chain's promotion of the film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The latest commercials feature the King on the field of several National Football League games (using archive footage from NFL Films), in a cross-promotion with the NFL and DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket sports subscription package (in the promotion, a code entered from the wrapper from an Angus burger sandwich could net several prizes, including free access to the Sunday Ticket package). (NFL Your Way promotion). In another ad, a man wakes up to find the king lying next to him in bed, suggesting a subtle homoerotic theme of the new campaign [1]. The king's unique appearance may have spawned an internet pheneomenon where he is seen as scary or evil, such as on sites like ytmnd. He is usually seen attacking other fast food mascots or replacing monsters of horror movies, usually accompioned by the phrase "Where is your god now?"

The Subservient Chicken is a viral marketing promotion by advertising agency Crispin Porter and Bogusky for Burger King, featuring a person (presumably) in a chicken costume, who does nearly whatever action he is told to. Despite appearances, it is not a live webcam.

In late 2004, Burger King introduced the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch. The sandwich was promoted by a nationwide advertising campaign featuring recording artist Darius Rucker (of Hootie and the Blowfish) singing a jingle to the tune of "Big Rock Candy Mountain."

In the summer of 2005, Burger King introduced Chicken Fries to its menu. The advertising campaign featured a metal band called Coq Roq, who wore chicken masks parodying the style of masks of nu metal band Slipknot. The website included music videos, downloadable cellular ringtones, and a store selling band merchandise.

Upon introduction of a kids meal to tie in with The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in September 2004, pranksters repeatedly stole inflatable advertisements off several restaurant's roof tops [2] and sent the Burger King employees a ransom note demanding Krabby Patties. Similar promotions were done with Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith with an inflatable Darth Vader and Shrek 2 with an inflatable Shrek.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Advertising", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki