High Quality Visuals Grace New Ads, Get Noticed

Michael Hedges February 24, 2020 Follow on Twitter

The happy advertising people are making pitches to clients all the time. It’s a big part of the job. Clients put out a call with a problem to be solved or an opportunity to be advanced. Ad-land people huddle for ideas, write it all down and make the presentation. Some win. Some lose. Some get famous.

it was a Whopper, literally and figuratively. Burger-based fast food chain Burger King rolled out ads this past week showing its iconic Whopper sandwich turning green, bright moldy green. Using time-lapsed photography, but none of the usual ad-land food tricks, the 45 second video ad depicted the result of 34 days on the shelf. The background music: “What A Difference A Day Makes.” The tagline: “The beauty of no artificial preservatives.” The ad launched in the US and Europe, including the UK, on YouTube. There is a complimentary outdoor campaign, large posters showing rotting - and time-stamped - Whoppers.

Fast food chains have long adjusted product offerings, bending to consumer tastes, not to forget zeitgeist - spirit of the times. Burning through reams of recent research, marketers have learned that authenticity - i.e. being real - is a consumer hot button. The food industry has also given attention to consumer warmth for healthy, vegetarian and meatless options. Anybody who sells anything knows the digital marketing reality: cutting through message clutter is tough.

"At Burger King we believe that real food tastes better," said Burger King owner Restaurant Brands International chief marketing officer Fernando Machado in a statement, quoted by Business Insider (February 19). "That's why we are working hard to remove preservatives, colors, and flavors from artificial sources from the food we serve in all countries around the world.” Mr. Machado also quoted advertising luminary Bill Bernbach; If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic.

“Our iconic Whopper sandwich is free of preservatives, colors and flavors from artificial sources,” said Burger King Sweden/Denmark general manager Iwo Zakowski. “And very soon, our entire food menu will only have real ingredients in Burger King Sweden and Denmark. That’s something we are very proud of.”

Headline writers had a great time with the Burger King ads, with several references to “breaks the mold.” “Baffling and repulsive,” said Forbes (February 21). US-based ad business magazine Adweek (February 19) completely jumped the shark: “There are only two eras in advertising: ads that came out before Burger King’s Moldy Whopper, and ads that came out after Burger King’s Moldy Whopper.”

Burger KIng ads have often taken the provocative road, better to take on arch (sic) fast food rival McDonalds. This time last year Burger King’s Swedish chain unloaded on Big Macs, the iconic McDonalds burger, by name. Shortly before, McDonalds had lost a trademark dispute with the small Irish chain Supermac, Burger King promptly began offering “Like a Big Mac But Actually Big.” Said the aforementioned Mr. Zakowski, quoted at the time by The Guardian (February 1, 2019), “It’s too much fun for us to stay away.”

Stockholm-based creative shop Ingo and Miami-based David, both affiliated with Ogilvy, won the project, which commenced about a year ago. “In my eyes it is not at all disgusting, on the contrary,” said Ingo creative director Björn Ståhl,” quoted by Swedish advertising and marketing portal Resumé (February 17). “Especially when you understand the message. The production quality is incredibly high, probably the nicest possible hamburgers ever photographed.”

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