Burger King’s new marketing campaign, “The Whopper Freakout” is, simply put, brilliant.
In this hidden camera style video, we get to see how people react when they are told the Whopper has been permanently discontinued, as well as how customers react when the bags they are given contain not Whoppers, but Big Mac’s or Wendy’s burgers.
I could further critique why this is such a funny, interesting and innovative marketing campaign, but instead I just urge you to watch the video and see for yourself….keep your eyes peeled for the 30-second and 60-second versions on TV.
83 responses so far ↓
1 DCBlogs // Dec 10, 2007 at 7:53 pm
2 CoryP // Dec 10, 2007 at 11:55 pm
I agree, And i used to dislike burger king growing up now that im older and the kiddie menu isnt the clencher for me anymore….for a fast food burger joint they are awesome. Whopper = God
3 Whopper Discontinued : Riots Ensue | Link Bait Me // Dec 11, 2007 at 1:55 am
[...] Actually, I barely eat from BK anymore, but they’ve got people talking. Some other blogs are calling it genius, and I [...]
4 Derrick // Dec 11, 2007 at 11:08 am
I think the campaign is good, but they have a recognizable commercial actor posing as the manager in the commercial which makes me think this never actually happened and everybody was in on it. Maybe they just wanted an actor who would be convincing when questioned, but if I walked into the restaurant that day, I would have known it was a prank as this guy from TV is working there. I also wonder, if this was real, how people in the area felt about it…if I went to a place to eat for one specific item and couldn’t get what I wanted I probably wouldn’t care if it was part of a commercial, I would not go there again.
5 Nick // Dec 11, 2007 at 10:44 pm
I live in Las vegas nevada and i was actually there at that exact burgerking that day when they said the wopper was discontinued. I never really liked the whopper so i didnt really cared that they discontinued it but i was shocked that they did. I was just standing there watching people curse out the workers . IT WAS ALL REAL. Even though i did not say something that would get me into the video when i left they where giving out free 10 $ gift cards to anyone who would sign a paper saying they would use you in the commercial
6 Peak Performance » Blog Archive » The King Of Advertising Campaigns // Dec 12, 2007 at 11:22 am
[...] If you haven’t already, take some time to check out the ad Burger King has been running. It… [...]
7 The Whopper Freakout: Burger King's Latest Marketing Campaign // Dec 13, 2007 at 6:32 am
[...] The Whopper Freakout = Genius [...]
8 Hillary // Dec 13, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I agree! I saw that commercial and literally thought to myself, “wow, they’re good!”. And to think, I JUST found out about the subservient chicken like a day before (I know, where the hell was I?)
9 whatever // Dec 14, 2007 at 1:31 am
Come on fattys, stop eating at these fat farms. You guys are disgusting.
10 McDillhole // Dec 14, 2007 at 4:33 am
Whatever, I want to see the video of customers who loved getting a Big Mac instead.
11 In Anchor » A “Whopper” of a Marketing Campaign // Dec 14, 2007 at 11:22 am
[...] The Whopper Freakout = Genius [...]
12 Whopper Freakout // Dec 14, 2007 at 11:31 am
[...] the customers and recording their Whopper Freakout. According to the comment on this post from the So Good blog, they were offering $10 vouchers if the customers signed release forms to appear in the film. At [...]
13 Dan // Dec 14, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Derrick: TV commercial directors have this magical thing they can do called “editing” which makes your point… well, what was it, exactly?
14 A "Whopper" of a Marketing Campaign | WebProNews // Dec 15, 2007 at 11:28 am
15 Mac // Dec 15, 2007 at 11:24 pm
like stated they use a friggin actor from a tv show, on comedy central as well as other commercials, wow i wonder why they needed an actor. and they offer an incintive to use your footage? can you say paid actors….
16 sherry // Dec 16, 2007 at 12:45 am
What is wrong with you people? Why can’t you eat something good for you like a salad? This is why everyone is so fat in America and eating themselves right into the grave Whoppers and Big Mac’s. What you see on the picture is not what it looks like when you get it anyway it looks like someone sat on it to warm it anyway there gross. Everything you order is a fat filled junk food on there menu. Its just nasty and even Wendy’s and Carl’s Jr is just as bad nothing is good for you or your kids that is why kids are huge. You all just go right ahead and eat your way into the grave it leaves more space for us healthy eaters at least Jack in the box has more on the menu and and thinks about his customers and about there health he doe’s not have to use stupid garbage like this. Burger King is so stupid the King gives me the creeps!!!
17 Eick // Dec 16, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Yikes. Settle down there Sherry. No one is talking about eating 9 Whoppers a week or anything. In fact it’s probably been months since I last had a whopper.
Settle down, switch to decaf, and realize that we are critiquing an ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN.
Also, your bizarre defense of Jack in the Box as somehow better than any other fast food joint is nonsense.
18 Tim // Dec 16, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Well it works… I really want a whopper…
19 WW~ // Dec 16, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Actually, Burger King sucks. McDonalds is worse. If I went to BK and they gave me a Wendy’s burger, I’d be happy. But Mickey D’s has the best fries.
20 dawn // Dec 16, 2007 at 4:51 pm
sherry seriously needs to relax and stop badgering people about their lifestyles. did the first dude in the commercial look like a “fatty”? No. I eat BK whoppers, MickyD Bic Macs and Wendy’s chilis very often. im not fat. 98 lbs siz 0. my kids aren’t fat. If your happy eating rabbit food, more power to you. I am an omnivore and will eat meat and meatlike products forever. The ad was funny. The reactions were crazy. Your badgering strangers is ridiculous.
21 ST // Dec 16, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Just for your information, I was there too. I don’t go to BK all the time, I am not a fatty, I enjoy a good burger now and then. BK has been around for a long time. The whopper goes back quite a way. Was it the end of the earth when they said the whopper was gone? No. But as a customer who went to BK thinking of getting a whopper and then being told they didn’t have it anymore. WOW! COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! Really thought it was a bad idea. BK & Whopper, they belonged together. To stop making them? Again, WOW! And you know what? They sure got all of you, and then some, to talk about it. GENIUS! GENIUS! My hat off to them. See how many hits on youtube? WOW! Not including their site and all the other sites that are running their commercial. Viral? YUP! Good Job BK!
22 C.J // Dec 17, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Man I laughed hard when I saw this commercial! It was creative and convincing. It also let people know that eventhough you may be on a diet or you want to eat healthy, everyone craves a burger at some point. There is just something magical about meat and cheese together. I’ve lost 70lbs and dropped 10 inches and I’m still losing weight. My doctor said i’m healthy and I still eat fast food ( burger king esp) when i want! Fast Food is good!! And by the way we are not the only country with obesity Miss Sherry!! Watch CNN China and the U.K especially are in the running!
I love burger king and Meat and Cheese Rules!!!
Peace!!!
23 Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Blog and Podcast - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image // Dec 17, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Whopper Freakout Commercial – The Power Of Testimonials Or Something More?…
There’s been lots of Web chatter about the viral power of the latest Web video from Burger King. It’s called Whopper Freakout Commercial. It’s on YouTube and you can view it here: When I first watched the Whopper Freakout Commercial, the candid appr…
24 Dan // Dec 17, 2007 at 6:51 pm
This is brilliant! They used actors because let’s face it, most regular BK employees wouldn’t be able to pull this off and probably would’ve either started laughing or messed up at some point.
25 shatraw // Dec 18, 2007 at 3:09 am
eick, your blog tends to end up arguing fast food a lot. then again, my blog uses the word “fucking” a lot. takes different strokes, i guess.
also, to those of you skinny people who devour fast food and claim it has no ill effects on the body, just a quick note. YOU ARE METABOLIC FREAKS. i knew someone like you once. all he ever ingested was pepsi and steak. and he weighted 150 pounds soaking wet. and he juggled… ie he was a circus freak. freaks. stop bragging about your crazy rate of turning food into energy. you’re depressing the “normies.”
26 Eick // Dec 18, 2007 at 11:36 am
Yeah, the amusing thing is when it comes to fast food in the burgers and fries sense I almost never ever eat that stuff. But as this blog shows, I am fascinated by the thinking behind new product offerings and the way it is marketed and advertised.
I stick mostly to local deli’s and ethnic restaurants with my eating out, but that doesn’t mean I can’t salivate, dry heave or get wide-eyed over the latest fast food offerings.
So all you Sherry’s of the world go give shit to someone else, just cause I write about it doesn’t mean I regularly eat it.
27 Heather // Dec 18, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Is this an attempt to call out McDonalds for not having a cheeseburger, hamburger, or the Big Mac on their late nite menu. Pretty ironic!?
28 Yummy // Dec 18, 2007 at 9:56 pm
I have a half hour lunch and sometimes I drive 10 minutes out of my way………. just for the whopper. 10 min to drive there………2 minutes to order and recieve………10 minutes to drive back and eat along the way (I know, bad habit) – back to work on time…..satisfied.
29 Now // Dec 18, 2007 at 9:59 pm
MMMMM…… I REALLY want a whopper now.
30 Littlenick // Dec 18, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Wasn’t that first kid in the black shirt “Rat” from “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”?
31 netryder // Dec 19, 2007 at 6:51 am
The Whopper Freakout = Complete Stupidity. What moron thought that pissing off a customer by not having a product available was a good idea? Here’s a news flash: They freaked out because they couldn’t believe how incompetent management was in not making sure that there were enough Whoppers in stock!
32 Brandon // Dec 19, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Sherry obviously is an idiot along with “shatraw”. I eat fast food all the time and am of normal weight. It’s called balanced nutrition and exercise. This piece by Burger King is amazing. This is viral marketing at it’s best. I didn’t recognize the manager as an actor, voice sounded familiar but chances are most people won’t know him. Even if this is staged, how else would burger king create a video that says “I hate Mc Donald’s and Wendy’s”. Thumbs up!
33 yo // Dec 20, 2007 at 3:48 am
the manager is an actor and one or two customers are actors too
the clip with the two guys out side, the one with the ” burger queen”, the guy on the left is from some where i cant quite put my finger on it.
if any one knows tell me im going crazy tring to figure it out .
34 Juli // Dec 20, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Personally I just think this commercial shows how pathetic the human race is that we get so upset over fried cow.
35 Eick // Dec 21, 2007 at 11:17 am
Actually Juli, getting upset over fried cow would be silly. The reason people are so upset is this is FLAME BROILED cow. Big difference. And oh so much more delicious.
36 shatraw // Dec 21, 2007 at 11:47 am
“brandon”, when have americans ever been good at balancing anything?
get bent.
37 Dave Cook // Dec 23, 2007 at 8:58 am
As long as they keep the Original Chicken Samich, I’m OK !
38 Michael // Dec 23, 2007 at 4:41 pm
I personally feel that the Whopper sucks anyway, they could discontinue Burger King for all I care. Everything you get in there tastes burnt, not just flame broiled, more like charcoal on a bun!!!
39 crosstek // Dec 24, 2007 at 4:33 pm
“To prove our whopper is the best thing since slice bread, we’re going to tell people who asked for the whopper that we don’t have it. That’s totally going to prove our point!”
…except not really.
Ugh! I am really sick of this commercial, and even more shocked that so many people think it’s “creative” and “brilliant”.
40 jen // Dec 24, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Brilliant? Hardly… Does it make me want to eat there? No. Does it make anyone want to eat there? Maybe…I can’t speak for others. I just don’t see how it is a brilliant campaign when it doesn’t showcase the food itself… Nor does it come oout with some new product to draw customers… Or to make ones that already go there go more often. Hardly brilliant at all…
41 Eick // Dec 24, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Could Burger King ever come out in an ad and directly say “McDonalds is disgusting?” or “I hate Wendy’s, it’s nasty?” Nope, but in this video they get that message across by getting real customers to say it for them. For that reason alone I think it’s incredibly effective, but clearly the reactions of customers also convey a sense of the incredible loyalty some people develop to the Whooper.
It’s reasons like this I think the video is brilliant…and frankly, the results back up my belief, the video has been lighting up the internet as one of the top search results on Google ever since the ads started running.
42 crosstek // Dec 24, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Okay Eick,
First, yes, Burger King could come out with an ad like that. Think about how Subway and Chipolte argue about which sandwich is better, etc.
Second, the customers saying it for them would say pretty much the same thing if they went to McDonald’s, asked for a Big Mac, and were told it wasn’t carried any more…or, really, if any consumer was denied a product they already had in mind to buy.
So basically, they took responses they knew they’d get, souped them up in the context of a ‘mass hysteria’ freakout, and use that to prove that their sandwhich is superior. Which its not.
As far as results go, yes, they’re getting a lot of attention…just like most internet campaigns do. If we’re going to laud the success of the video based on the number of hits, then we’ll have to compare it to other interned ads. Was this marketing venture as popular as ilovebees.com? Lonelygirl15? I’m actually asking, since I don’t have figures, but at a guess, I’d say that in terms of internet advertising, whopperfreakout.com is ‘ho hum’.
43 Eick // Dec 24, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Sure a company could make an ad like that, but people think OF COURSE corporate Burger King is going to say McDonalds or Wendy’s sucks. But getting customers to say it delivers it in a much more raw form.
You say they are getting a lot of attention “just like most internet campaigns do.” Actually there are hundreds of internet campaigns that go nowhere. These types of internet campaigns are what I do for a living, and I can say that this one has been wildly more successful than the average internet campaign. The results in terms of web traffic, seem to be far from “ho-hum”. Of all the internet campaigns that have been done, in terms of audience reach this one is clearly in the top 1% overall.
I am not aware of a single fast food viral or internet campaign that has done as well as this one so far. I would guess it has surpassed the Wendy’s hot, juicy burger website. The only thing that seems to come close would be something from a couple years ago like the BK Subservient Chicken.
Anyways, as someone who works in the internet marketing industry for a living, that’s just my take.
44 shatraw // Dec 25, 2007 at 2:43 am
yeah, well i officially invented “marketing” and “advertising campaigns” and “burger king” and i think this is ok. y’know. just ok.
45 nate // Dec 25, 2007 at 6:39 am
you fuckin jackass, if any fucking fast food chain discontinued their signature item people would freak out. Its just brought to everyones attention that nothing at burger king is worthy of eating except for their one wack ass item. give it a month before another commercial says “oh you discontinued the jumbo jack? well let me get some of those jalapeno poppers 2 monster tacos, a teriyaki bowl and salad instead then.”
46 Eick // Dec 25, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Wait….I don’t get it. I’m a jackass for writing about this? Or for thinking it’s a smart advertising campaign?
My post about this campaign has received more comments than anything else I’ve ever written about. Plus people are saying things like “jackass” and getting all worked up about it….doesn’t that just go to show how successful it’s been? Even if people don’t like it, they are now aware of it, unlike the hundreds of totally unnoticed internet campaigns each year.
47 jbhilt // Dec 25, 2007 at 3:29 pm
You don’t have to be a BK fan or a fast food fan to appreciate the brilliance of this particular marketing campaign. People might freak out if any fast food place discontinued their signature item, but BK made a commercial about and it seems to be a big hit. With all the lame ads out there these days I give this one a big thumbs up. I think I’ll go get a whopper!
48 crosstek // Dec 25, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Eick,
I’m going to ignore the last three posts and respond to the one you directed at me (mostly because you actually know what you’re talking about and I don’t care to make my arguments through the use explitives).
Your point about this being better than “most internet campaigns” is a good one. I generalized. Truth be told, I don’t have a basis for comparison. Would you have figures to support BK’s success? While I agree that “most internet campaigns” may not be an accurate figure for comparison, it’s hard to say “hundreds of internet campaigns go nowhere”, much for the same reason we can’t disqualify the existence of the Loch Ness monster. Do you know of any website that keeps track of internet ads so we can get an idea just how many fast food internet ads have flopped or flown? If not, maybe we should both forgo the use of numbers to back up our side and just examine the merits of the ad itself.
As far as getting the customer to say ‘it’ is concerned, I’d very much like to see how much editing went into that video. Since you work in internet marketing, I”m sure you’d agree that BK’s campaign is hardly truthful in it’s entirety. Without out and saying it, they’re using the customers who said what they wanted to hear as their subjects and most likely ignoring a large (possibly majority?) of customers who just didn’t really care, to imply that everyone would completely lose it if Burger King got rid of their whopper.
Your thoughts?
49 Eick // Dec 25, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Hey Crosstek, thanks for your response. I don’t have access to traffic figures or the number of views the video has received on their site (BK would have to release that data themselves) to back up my statements. I’m basing my opinions on this on the incredibly high ranking of the phrase “whopper freakout” in Google searches since the campaign started. The fact that tens of thousands of people are Googling that phrase shows me it has successfully gone viral.
As for my saying hundreds of internet campaigns go nowhere, I’m making that statement just based on the many internet campaigns I have heard about or observed in the past 4 years. Tons of companies are trying to make their campaigns go viral, and it is incredibly hard to break through the noise there are hundreds of campaigns the average internet user never hears about because they never go anywhere…the video or website fails in its attempts to go viral.
As for your points about editing of the video, it is a very valid one. I’m sure it took an entire day of filming to get 6 minutes worth of “TV worthy” reactions for their ads. But, that’s just kind of the way these things go, whether it be for commercials or candid camera.
50 shatraw // Dec 25, 2007 at 5:41 pm
the bottom line is the internet marketing is entirely a numbers game. opinion and perception don’t really factor into it so long as the counters keep ticking up. whether consumer x or consumer y acutally “like’ the campaign is completely besides the point. effectiveness, in this market, is based primarily on headcount (ie traffic). if the numbers go big, the campaign is working. plus, anything done online costs jack shit. so the likely cost per conversion is much lower than, oh, tv, print, billboards, pretty much anything.
51 crosstek // Dec 25, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Hey Eick,
Good points, but something shatraw mentioned makes me wonder…why does the gross number of hits constitute success? I, for one, googled the phrase because I was annoyed with the commercial and wanted to see if anyone else was. I’d guess others did the same.
Does this mean that marketing departments only base their results on the counter and not on the feedback? I’d have to go back to the site and check, but I’m betting there’s no comments page at whopperfreakout.com.
52 shatraw // Dec 26, 2007 at 2:12 am
crosstek, if you’re actually responding negatively enough to a campaign to find out more about it, it’s still kind of working. look how hooked into this discussion we’ve all become. now, if someone unawares of this ad campaign wanders on here and thinks “gee what’s all the hype about?” then we’ve done their work for them. that’s the trick with internet marketing.
also, when it comes to ads that people DON’T like, rarely do they follow up with them online. while others might do the same, you’re certainly in the minority there.
look, the bottom line is this: ads are intended to make us buy something. it used to be you did, or you didn’t. now, there are subgenres of how effective an ad is. but effectiveness in advertising is still only measured in one way: how much product or service it sells. will this sell more whoppers? who knows. but it will make alot of people talk about whoppers and there’s a school of thought that says that will make people at more whoppers. it’s hard to say. welcome to advertising in the internet age. (heck, welcome to the root of the writers’ strike in hollywood.)
53 Speedster239 // Dec 30, 2007 at 4:52 am
IT is truly genius, this is probably the first marketing campaign that got me to sit up and watch what they had to say. @Whatever a few pages up, I think you need to grow up.
54 Mustardddd // Dec 30, 2007 at 7:25 pm
haha fatass americans the fat guy at the end lol so funny
55 tim // Dec 30, 2007 at 11:28 pm
This commercial is absolute stupidity, plain and simple.
Yes, I’m one of the fans of Burger King. I can’t generally stand fast food hamburgers unless they’re Burger King (tho’ I could take or leave the Whopper, personally). The meat actually tastes like beef, instead of … well, whatever the hell it is that McDonald’s or Wendy’s tastes like — linty, greasy, rubbery pseudo-chicken? Something like that.
Anyway, I’m truly SCARED to patronize a company who so nonchalantly fucks with their customers for publicity. Had I been in that Burger King that day, and received a Big Mac instead of what I’d ordered and been called a liar when I brought it back up to the counter, there’d be some spare teeth lying around.
This is *not* the way to show your customers that you appreciate them. This is how you slap a loyal customer in the face. Looks like it’s going to be a cold day in hell before I order a burger from a fast food joint, again, anywhere.
56 Lilo // Dec 31, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Wow! We have got some real uptight people here in america. Is this heated debate really going on about a burger commercial that is simply clever? Like BK or not, the commercial is doing its job, I haven’t had one in I don’t know how long but I tell you one thing, it’s got me thinking of BK now. Take it or leave it folks and leave your anger to things like war, poverty, crime-things that really should get your blood boiling. It’s not that serious. Now somebody get me a whopper.
57 buubi | A “Whopper” of a Marketing Campaign // Jan 5, 2008 at 3:35 pm
[...] The Whopper Freakout = Genius [...]
58 Broly // Jan 7, 2008 at 10:48 am
this is stupid, i mean why would they seriously discontinue the number one selling burger? ITs home of the whopper. Shit i was pissed when they got rid of their tacos. The whopper would make me enraged.
59 Story Telling » Blog Archive » Brilliant?! // Jan 7, 2008 at 2:49 pm
[...] People… people that are supposed to know better… have been calling it Brilliant, Genius, and otherwise heaping on the praise. I call it a waste of time. Here’s the disclaimer: [...]
60 Pieface // Jan 8, 2008 at 12:23 am
WHAT?! NO WHOPPER MY GOD! I can’t possibly bare to order a plain old double cheeseburger or chicken sandwich, I’m way to fat and over obsessive on my fatty fast food. [/end sarcasm]
61 Whopper Freakout - Dogpile Web Search // Jan 9, 2008 at 7:15 am
62 Coming Friday: Full Analysis of Whopper Freakout | So Good // Jan 9, 2008 at 4:51 pm
[...] My original post about the Whopper Freakout campaign has been one of the most popular posts I’ve ever had, and is the number 3 result on a Google search for “Whopper Freakout.” In the comments of my post, a number of individuals argued that they hated the ads and therefore the campaign was a dud. Well rather than rely on anecdotal evidence, I set out to show statistically just how successful the campaign has been. [...]
63 mr whopper // Jan 9, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Great commercial. Lighten up people and stop taking everything so seriously. God good no wonder the country is going to hell, its full of idiots !!!!!!!!!
64 Rich // Jan 10, 2008 at 3:10 pm
The ads are certainly noticable and memorable, and do a nice job of promoting the Whopper, which is the goal, so I’ll give it a definite thumbs up.
On the other hand, the subtext of the spots seems to be ‘everything else on our menu sucks’….
65 TBogg - “…a somewhat popular blogger” » A little bit of this…a little bit of that // Jan 11, 2008 at 11:16 am
66 Full Analysis of the Whopper Freakout Campaign | So Good // Jan 11, 2008 at 2:47 pm
[...] Whopper Freakout campaign. The thousands of people who have visited So Good in order to watch the full-length Whopper Freakout video know that I am a fan of the campaign, having called it “brilliant” and “genius.” But how [...]
67 Lenny // Jan 15, 2008 at 11:37 am
Hey Mr. Whopper, try telling that to the people on the commercial. “Get me a Whopper!” “I hate Wendy’s!” If it’s that big a deal, go somewhere else.
68 So Good's Top 6 Posts of 2007 | So Good // Jan 16, 2008 at 11:53 am
[...] 1. The Whopper Freakout = Genius [...]
69 jonathan // Jan 19, 2008 at 5:57 pm
just watching the whole skit on the official website makes me want a whopper and i dont even like BK
70 Noah // Jan 22, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I agree that it is a great marketing campaign, but I started losing interest in Burger King when they brought back the italian chicken sandwich and then promptly took it away because it just “limited time only”…
I remember getting into arguments with the managers of various bks because I love that sandwich. I honestly could care less for the whopper…
In closing, I would have been one of the people that would’ve been happy to score a big mac instead of a whopper.
71 James // Jan 23, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I believe it is the stupidest idea ever to conceive. Are you telling me that our society is infested with such slacked jaw hicks (as we can see in the commercials) that are soooo devoted to the whopper that they couldn’t eat a burger from another fast food joint? Ridiculous. And they’re not the same couch potatoes who watch 100 hours of television a week and not notice the “manager” is a friggin actor I’ve seen in other commercials?? Obviously, Burger King took the ten people who actually freaked out, and not the 5500 people who said, “Fuck it, I’ll go to Carl’s Jr.”
72 Joyce - MyBlogLog // Jan 29, 2008 at 11:49 am
73 The Results Are In: Whopper Freakout Worked | So Good // Feb 7, 2008 at 1:14 pm
[...] readers of So Good know that I was one of the first bloggers to post about the Whopper Freakout campaign, praising it as “genius.” In early January, I conducted an analysis of the Whopper [...]
74 Pizza Hut Pasta Uses the "Whopper Freakout" Angle | So Good // Apr 21, 2008 at 5:50 pm
[...] has a new commercial promoting their line of Tuscani pastas. Taking a cue from Burger King’s Whopper Freakout campaign, Pizza Hut is utilizing a variation of the “real person” hidden camera style that made [...]
75 Fake Restaurant is the New Whopper Freakout | So Good // May 22, 2008 at 3:51 pm
[...] tactic in fast food marketing campaigns. First it was the fake discontinuing of the Whopper for Whopper Freakout. Then it was passing your pasta off as high-end pasta from an Italian restaurant for Pizza [...]
76 marketing big macs // Jun 4, 2008 at 10:52 pm
[...] react when they are told the Whopper has been permanently discontinued, as well as how customers reahttp://www.sogoodblog.com/2007/12/10/the-whopper-freakout-genius/Investor&39s Business Daily: The Art Of Making A Big Mac Go GreenMay 9, 2008 … Investor&39s [...]
77 2007-12-12 « Fun Links Daily // Jun 26, 2008 at 8:18 am
78 S72 // Jul 11, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Eick,
Thanks for starting the dialogue on this one. I also work in PR and marketing and find all the reactions fascinating!
Were the staff actors? I said yes from the first few seconds of the clips. Was the tape edited for best effect – of course!
Let’s remember, this is entertainment! (my personal fav moment is when they offer the customer an autographed photo of the Whopper – hysterical) It’s a commercial, not a scientific study that hoped to prove the Whopper was the best burger on the face of the earth.
Love it or hate it, we have a saying … any PR is good PR!
79 SilentMusic // Jul 16, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I sure pity the employees who had to go through all that, as if they already don’t get dumped on enough, and for minimum wage.
80 Courtney // Jul 20, 2008 at 1:52 am
Everyone needs to chill out.
This commercial, was, in my opinion, Genius. You can tell that the customers were in good humor about it after they were told it was a joke.. I mean, honestly, do you really think there are people lying at home with there knees drawn up to their chin rocking back in forth thinking “I…need…whopper…” No. They found out it was a joke and laughed. It was funny! Even if some of the employee’s were actors, they never said the employee’s were real.. they said the customers were. Not alot of people have an amazing acting ability. This commerical made me laugh and actually made me start wanting to go to burger king all the time instead of McDonalds or A&W Cause’ It makes me think they all have a good sense of humor and All in all, it was a brilliant marketing campaign… just the other day one of my friends said He had to go to burger king, (Which is a 30 minute drive from where he lives,) Just because he was craving a whopper for the commercial.
Brilliant! Good job BK!
81 Whopper Virgins: Spare Me Your Outrage | So Good // Dec 4, 2008 at 8:10 pm
[...] so well for them with the highly succesful Whopper Freakout campaign, which I praised as “genius” when it was first [...]
82 Whopper Freakout : EveryJoe - Sports News – Tech Reviews – Entertainment – Life Tips for EveryJoe // Dec 22, 2009 at 10:12 am
83 PSA Example | BASIC MULTIMEDIA STORYTELLING // Sep 1, 2010 at 10:04 am
[...] The Whopper Freakout = Genius Tags: ad, movie, psa, web-campaign [...]
Leave a Comment