Since it was founded in 1954, international fast food chain Burger King has employed many advertising programs. During the 1970s, its advertisements included a memorable jingle, the inspiration for its current mascot the Burger King and several well-known and parodied slogans, such as Have it your way and It takes two hands to handle a Whopper. From the early 1980s until approximately 2002, Burger King engaged a series of advertising agencies that produced many unsuccessful slogans and programs, including its least successful campaign, Where's Herb?.
In 2003, Burger King hired the Miami-based advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), which revived the Burger King character used during Burger King's 1970s and 1980s Burger King Kingdom advertising campaign as a caricature now simply called "the King". CP+B also created a series of viral web-based advertisements to complement its television and print promotional campaigns on various social networks and various Burger King corporate pages. These viral campaigns, other new campaigns and a series of new product introductions, drew both positive and negative attention to Burger King and helped TPG and its partners earn approximately US$367 million in dividends. After the late-2000s recession, Burger King's owner, TPG Capital, divested itself of the chain in 2010; the new owner, 3G Capital, ended its relationship with CP+B and hired McGarryBowen to begin a new campaign targeted on a broader demographic.
Burger King successfully partnered with George Lucas's Lucasfilm to promote the 1977 movie Star Wars, one of the first product tie-ins in the fast food industry.
History
United States
1958 The first Burger King television commercial was broadcast on Miami's VHF station.
1960s–1970s Pillsbury acquired the Burger King business in 1967, and a year later, BBDO was signed on as the company's advertising agency. The relationship continued until July 1976. Since 1974, Burger King ran a series of much-lampooned but successful television commercials in which employees sing: "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Special orders don't upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way!" This advertising strategy aimed to contrast Burger King's flexibility with McDonald's famous rigidity. This theme has been reiterated in subsequent advertising campaigns. BBDO were believed to have been dropped because of their inability to originate a successful new campaign following their "Have It Your Way" campaign.
Burger King's first successful cross-promotional campaign was in 1977. It offered several collectible items, such as posters, glasses and sticker sets that featured scenes and characters from Star Wars. The promotional glasses have become collector's items. The Star Wars tie-in continued with the remainder of the first Star Wars trilogy and the DVD release of both trilogies. During the 1984 television premiere of Star Wars, Burger King commercials were featured prominently.
1980s–1990s In 1982, Burger King's television advertising campaign featured Sarah Michelle Gellar, then aged 4. In the advertisements, Gellar said that McDonald's burgers were 20% smaller than Burger King's. It was arguably the first attack on a food chain by a competitor. The campaign was controversial because prior to it, fast food advertisements only made vague allusions to the competition and never mentioned the name. McDonald's sued and the suit was settled the following year on undisclosed terms.
In 1984, a commercial was aired featuring the character of Mister Rodney, a Mister Rogers impersonator, complete with parted hair, cardigan sweater and friendly smile, who would walk through a door to a cozy-looking room set, greet viewers with "Hi, neighbors," and proceed to tout the superiority of Burger King's flame broiled burgers over McDonald's fried ones, asking, "can you say, McFrying?" The real Fred Rogers himself took issue with the commercial, saying it could confuse young children who wouldn't understand that it was a spoof and that the smiling, gentle-voiced, cardigan-clad fellow in the spot was an impersonator, and would think Mister Rogers was on TV selling them fast food. Rogers was adamant about never advertising to children. Also, as a vegetarian, he resented someone dressed up to look like him hawking a meat-based dish. Rogers called the CEO of Burger King, voiced his opinion and politely requested that the commercial be withdrawn. The spot, which cost $150,000 to produce, was pulled from the airwaves forthwith.
In November 1985, Burger King spent $40 million on the Where's Herb? advertising campaign. The campaign's premise was that Herb was the only man in America who had never eaten a Whopper. Customers recognizing Herb in any store would win US$5,000. The advertisements did not reveal Herb's appearance until the company's Super Bowl XX commercial, where Herb was revealed to be a bespectacled man in an ill-fitting suit. Herb toured stores across the country, appeared on The Today Show, and served as a guest timekeeper during WrestleMania 2. The campaign had little impact on sales and was quickly dropped. According to Advertising Age magazine, the Herb campaign was the "most elaborate advertising flop of the decade." Burger King's other 1980s advertising campaigns, such as "This is a Burger King town", "Fast food for fast times", and "We do it like you'd do it" were barely more successful.
In the early 1990s, Burger King advertised its new dinner offering – dinner baskets and table service – with the "BK Tee Vee" (or "BKTV") campaign, which used the taglines "BK Tee Vee... I Love this Place!" and "Your Way Right Away!", and featured Dan Cortese as "Dan: The Whopper Man." Burger King's lack of a successful advertising campaign continued during the 1980s and 1990s.
2000s–2010s In September 2002, Burger King introduced its 99¢ Value Menu in response to Wendy's 99¢ Value Menu. The advertisements featured the comedian Adam Carolla as the voice of BK's drive thru. The menu was later renamed the BK Value Menu with prices starting at US$1.
Shortly after the acquisition of Burger King by TPG Capital in 2002, its new CEO Bradley (Brad) Blum set about reversing the fortunes of the company's advertising programs. The company reinstated its famous Have it your way motto and engaged Miami-based advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), which was known for having a hip, subversive tack when creating campaigns for its clients. CP+B updated Burger King's image and changed its marketing strategy. The cups, bags and the company logo were redesigned with the intent to give BK an appealing, culturally aware and modern image. Humorous statements, claims and product descriptions were printed on bags, product packaging and on in-store promotional materials, including a Burger King Bill of Rights, using the slogan Have it Your Way. CP+B created an advertising campaign that focused on television spots, print, web and product tie-ins.
CP+B reinstated the Burger King character used in the 1970s and 1980s for the Burger King Kingdom advertising campaign. The character was redesigned as a caricature of the original, now simply called the Burger King or just the King. The new incarnation replaced the singing and dancing Magical Burger King with a miming actor who wore an oversized, grinning plastic mask resembling the original actor who played King. Employing the practice of viral marketing, CP+B's advertisements generated significant word of mouth and a new use of what has become known as the Creepy King persona, an appellation that CP+B used in later advertisements. In April 2009, a CP+B advertisement for Burger King's "Texican burger" was removed from television because it caused an international uproar over insults to Mexico.
After purchasing the company in 2010, 3G Capital ended Burger King's relationship with CP+B and engaged the services of McGarryBowen. In August 2011, McGarryBowen produced its first Burger King campaign, which was for the California Whopper sandwich. The advertisements were the first in a campaign that de-emphasized the King and focused on ingredients and preparation methods.
In 2017, Burger King briefly ran an ad to intentionally activate Google Home smart speakers. The end of the commercial featured an employee saying "OK Google, what is the Whopper burger," which would trigger the device to read the first sentence of the Wikipedia entry for the Whopper. Shortly before the ad's release, the entry for Whopper had been edited to include lines such as "America's favourite burger" and "100% beef with no preservatives". Although the ad worked for a while, after a few hours the commercial no longer triggered a search by the device, which was viewed by both The New York Times and The Verge to be a deliberate change made by Google. According to the BBC, the voice-over for the commercial was re-recorded with a different intonation in order to bypass the block. During the hours that the ad was active, many attempts were made to vandalize the Wikipedia page in question to alter Google Home's description. Wikipedia editors in response demanded Burger King to apologise.
In February 2019, the company launched an advertising campaign called "Eat Like Andy". The television spot which premiered during the Super Bowl LIII features archival documentary film footage from "66 Scenes from America" by Jørgen Leth of the pop artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) unwrapping and eating a Whopper. The footage was approved for use by the fast food giant courtesy of the Andy Warhol Foundation. Meanwhile, prior to the game the mass market hamburger chain made available to viewers who ordered it in advance via DoorDash an "Andy Warhol Mystery Box" which with contains among other items a plastic bottle of ketchup and a platinum wig so one can "Eat Like Andy".
2020s In February 2020, to highlight the company's commitment to no artificial preservatives in their famous Whopper, Burger King ran an ad with a time-lapse of a decaying burger on Twitter. The company explained that it has removed artificial preservatives from the Whopper in a number of European countries – including France, Sweden and Spain – and about 400 of its 7,346 U.S. restaurants. It plans to remove preservatives from Whoppers served in all of its restaurants in 2020.
In August 2020, Burger King partnered with marketing agency Ogilvy to launch a new campaign titled "The King of Stream" in which they used the donation feature of streaming service Twitch to advertise. This was done without the cooperation of the streamers that were donated to, and was poorly received as a result.
In 2021, a new campaign serving as a response to the various "flavour conspiracys" regarding their burgers was launched with the slogan "It's not a secret, it's real fire" (stated in the accompanying advert as "No secrets, it's just fire").
In 2022, Burger King released a new series of advertisements named "You Rule", built around the melody of the original "Have it Your Way" jingle. The ads were conceptualized by the ad agency OKRP. They went viral on social media sites, such as TikTok, rising to prominence during the 2023 NFL Playoffs.
Argentina In 2017, to promote its flame-grilled burgers, Burger King offered a lifetime supply of free Whoppers to people with the last name "Parrilla." Parrilla translates as 'grill' and the company decided to connect with those who have been teased by their name, use their stories in an advertisement, and offer them the free burgers.
The King