Was the Burger King Mega Stacker Billboard a Good Ad OR... EP16

Episode 16 Transcript

Welcome back to the marketing combat podcast. My name is Chris Kubbernus and with me always is the hatted, you know, is it like, is it like a switch like my turbo had this way? It's like a switch and then I can nevermind. So Sylvester Stallone reference from over the top. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He switches his hat. He's able to kick some butt with the, you know, arm wrestling anyways. That's very niche reference. Like I said, my name is Chris Kubbernus with me always is Jason Donnelly.

Tell us what we're talking about today, Jason. Ooh, today on the Marketing Combat Podcast, every time we do this, we know what the subject is, but we don't know what we're actually battling for. So the person on the other side of the table may actually have to be a devil's advocate if they don't want to argue this topic. Today's topic is the Burger King real size burger ads coming out of Mexico. Honestly, it's the question that I want to fight about here is, are they just marketing to advertisers?

or are they actually advertising to the public? Personally, I gotta tell ya, I think it's just a bunch of advertisers gone down the echo chamber again and talking to a bunch of advertisers. Think about like the moldy whopper. Again, I think it was just a bunch of advertisers talking to a bunch of advertisers instead of actually doing anything exciting and fun. Like, they're so small on the billboards that like, what does it actually do? If you see that from a distance, you just see some dots on it. Who cares? You're not doing anything fun or exciting.

You're just showing a bunch of advertisers that you think outside the box and maybe your next job will be something better than advertising on a billboard in Mexico for Burger King real size burgers. Chris, tell me why I'm wrong. I'll tell you why you're wrong. It's because as a activity, one of the things that fast food restaurants have had to battle is that their deceptive advertising practices towards the actual size, the style of their burgers. lot of people get disappointed, right?

They see an ad, they're like, that looks awesome, that big juicy burger. And then they get to the store, they get it, and it's like, so it's not as it's advertised, and that's a big problem within the industry. So Burger King says, okay, we're gonna flip it on its head. We're actually gonna show you the actual size. Now, it's still a pretty burger. It's still like pumped up. It's still advertising burger, but it's the actual size. for a, you know, I think it's a good example of like going the opposite direction of when you know people expect you to zig, you zag.

sort of thing and I think that works really well in advertising. So people expected if it's a mega stacker burger, which what it is, it's like five patties or six patties or giant, they would expect a giant billboard with a giant burger on it saying mega come by it today, like get a mega deal, mega stackers are here, whatever it is, like gigantic savings, gigantic burgers are only a gigantic step away, those kind of things. Like those are very typical sort of advertising things. They go the other way and they say, hey listen,

We wanna show you the real deal. We wanna show you the size of it. You can walk up to the billboard. As a billboard, as you know, driving past, it sucks, because you're right. You only see the dots, and nobody's gonna pay attention to that. But as you know, a lot of people walk, and that is specifically geared towards people that are walking by. They can put their hand up to it. They can go, that's the actual size of that burger? That looks awesome. I'm gonna walk an extra 100 meters.

to Burger King and get myself one of those mega stacker burgers. And I think the sales will tell, but I agree with you in a sense like Burger King hasn't always been great at advertising. I their sales numbers are down, their sales numbers aren't what they should be in a lot of countries and a lot of places. And that is due to doing things that are making their product seem less nice, which I think the moldy whopper did. So I agree with you, like that's a crappy, maybe a crappy advertising campaign that all the industry loves. I don't personally love it, but I think this one's different. I think this one is.

playing on a very important part of advertising and touching consumers in a very specific way that all of us can relate to is like not getting the product that we actually wanted. So yes, that's why I think it's a good ad and I think it'll drive sales, but time will tell. Chris, everything Tell me why I'm wrong. No, everything that you're saying, I agree with what you're saying, but if they're gonna be authentic, if they're gonna show the real burger, show the real burger. Because none of the burgers that we've ever seen in advertising have ever been real.

And if they actually showed the burger the way that it looks, in whatever size they want to show it, if it's massive on the billboard, hardly fits or tiny, but it actually looks like what it is, that would be authentic. That would be something interesting. McDonald's or Burger King or any of you, call me up. We can talk this through, but do that. Show it. Show it real because everybody's had Burger King. Everybody's had McDonald's. Show the real burger and show people this is what you know. This is what you love. It's not some fake picture. Come on by.

You know you want to. You already know what it tastes like. So anyway, yeah. I love it. I think it was garbage. Good points, Jason. I think you're right. I think there is like, it's authentic but inauthentic at the same time. It's a very, very good point. you're like saying it's not enough. It's on the edge of good, but it's not good. Yeah, it's on the edge. Which is, be real. Which is fast food anyway, right? Like it's on the edge of good, but it's not good. That's actually a good euphemism for both Burger King and McDonald's. It's on the edge of good, but it's just not that good.

Euthanasia. Euthanasia, yes. That's a good euthanasia right there. Euphemism, euthanasia. I don't know what you said. Either way, everybody listen and tell us what you think. Is the Burger King real size burgers a good campaign? Is it a garbage campaign? Is it just a campaign for other marketers to say, wow, how outside the box did they think this time? You tell us in the comments. Tell us in the comments, let us know. Support the show, subscribe.

on favorite podcast platform or if you're watching this on YouTube, please subscribe. Give us a like, give us a share. We would love that. Give us a review. Thank you so much for tuning in and we will catch you in the next one. That's Chris Kubbernus and I'm Ronald McDonald.