Homoerotic! Funny! Creepy! Strange!…
Brilliant!

Although their current logo is not much to speak of, fast food mamoth Burger King has played their US market brand management very shrewdly in recent years. Having played out the ‘calorie explosion’ wars with McDonalds and Wendy’s (Lord have mercy) each brand then made appeals to the younger ‘hip’ crowd. McDonalds made a play to the urban hipsters with the ‘I’m lovin’ it!’ tag line and a bunch of kids dancing with Big Macs. There is also the curious print ad campaign showing cool kids hanging out at someone’s pad with ‘Mc’ in big white block letters nearby on the floor. Not too keen on that one. As far as Wendy’s is concerned… we don’t even want to talk about that stupid tooth campaign.

Burger King took a different tack by enlisting smart advertising firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky to update their image. What they came up with is an odd quirky genius stroke of brand positioning creativity. Instead of starting from scratch, CPB reinvented the ol’ king in the form of a guy in a big plastic (or fiberglass) Burger King head that appears out of nowhere and offers up a huge sandwich. Full disclosure here - the guy in said head happens to be a friend… but please trust! Our opinion on this is not biased! The strange situations that the King appears in -in bed with another man, in the back of a car, in a David LaChapelle sexy fantasy land with Hootie, etc.- caused an immediate stir and set the kids a’chatterin’ on the ol’ internet. Some loved the King, some hated the King, almost all thought it some degree of creepy, but really - who cares! It got people talking about it.

Now Mr. BK can be seen scoring touchdowns and dumping Gatorade in old football footage spots as well as getting mentioned on Saturday Night Live. He’s even been spotted recently out shopping in Hollywood and at a Lakers game with model Brooke Burke (the hoodie is absolute genius).

The ad campaign has succeeded in turning the Burger King BACK into a pop cultural figure. And in the world of brand management that’s striking gold. We here at HQ go to bed each night hoping to wake up next to the King.