Forget Star Wars, it’s the burger wars that are providing the
hottest entertainment in the US this autumn, and last week’s cannon
fodder was provided by Ammirati Puris Lintas New York, or, more
particularly, its latest brand-building ads for Burger King.
Competition has never been fiercer in America’s cluttered fast food
market, and the two beefiest burger slingers, McDonald’s and Burger
King, have been slugging it out with special promotions, new products
and a tireless string of ads on the small screen.
However, Burger King’s latest commercials have not been well received,
prompting its president, Paul Clayton, to criticise his agency in the
trade press. There was even talk of the latest ads being pulled,
although this was later denied by Burger King. (’We just don’t know
whether they will run any more,’ a spokesman said.)
Such shots across the bow happen all the time, of course. A word in a
speech here, a line allegedly taken out of context there. The message
gets across but can be retracted for posterity later. But in this
instance, the Burger King PR machine has not backed down. The message to
APL was clear: we are not going to fire you, but you’d better sharpen up
your act.
So what crass monstrosities inspired such a public washing of the
laundry?
One commercial features two men attempting to stare each other down
while the ultimate distraction - a Whopper - is placed before them. One
caves in under the pressure, and then we find that the winner was only
able to keep his cool because of a Whopper patch on his arm to reduce
his craving.
The second spot shows a ’Whoppermobile’ touring around making hamburgers
to order and thus irritating other local vendors.
No Grand Prix winners then, but surely not worth a public fist
fight?
So why the fuss? One answer, perhaps, lies with Burger King’s previous
campaign, the phenomenally successful ’food and music’, a version of
which is now running here. ’Food and music’ was a highly efficient
campaign.
’It was a hard act to follow,’ Jim Allman, the chairman of APL New York,
concedes.
Secondly, the new work’s architect at Burger King, James Watkins,
recently quit for a chief executive role elsewhere, thus leaving the
company at a critical time in its history, and the new campaign with no
internal champion. Not only that, but sales figures are not as promising
as they once were. Wall Street estimates a decline of 5 per cent at
Burger King in like-for-like sales in the second half of the fiscal year
while, in contrast, McDonald’s sales are put at 4 to 5 per cent up.
So the pressure has been building. Moreover, it is a business driven
less by the centre than by its powerful franchisees, some of whom run as
many as 100 Burger King outlets. There is, of course, no smoke without
fire. But Clayton’s sabre-rattling looks as much addressed to his
franchisees as it was to the agency. And the message runs something like
this: ’I am doing something about flagging sales, honestly.’
