Burger King’s Whopper virgins

The backlash against a fast-food chain’s ad campaign

“What could Burger King's PR people be thinking?” asked Marion Nestle in The Daily Green. The fast-food chain “spent a fortune to go to the ends of the earth and ask people who supposedly had never eaten a hamburger”—Whopper virgins, Burger King calls them—what kind of burger is best. (click here for the Burger King video) It’s hard to say “what’s worse”—the junk science, or the “offensiveness” of the whole concept.

But, as an advertising strategy, this could be a stroke of genius, said the advertising blog The Future of Ads. “If you believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity, then the sheer number of times that Whopper Virgins has already been mentioned in the press” is reason enough to call this campaign a success.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up