What do we use cookies for?
We use cookies to enable the use of our platform’s paid features and to analyse our traffic. No personal data, including your IP address, is stored and we do not sell data to third parties.
Touché Burger King
France – When McDonald’s attacked Burger King in its latest French commercial, the fast food rival fought back.
- Burger King only re-entered the French market in 2013 and has 45 locations compared with more than 1,000 for McDonald’s
- Poking fun at this difference, McDonald’s installed the directional billboard, to which Burger King swiftly responded
Earlier this month, McDonald’s and TBWA/Paris installed a giant billboard outside of Brioude, France, a small town in the Haute-Loire region of France. The billboard displays the precise directions to the next Burger King – 258km away. Next to the directional billboard is another sign with an arrow pointing to the nearest McDonald’s, just 5km away, with the message being that, with more than 1,000 locations in France, if you crave a fast food burger McDonald’s is your best bet.
Rather than ignoring the slight, Burger King worked with advertising agency Buzzman to quickly add an alternative ending to the ad. It shows a couple reaching the sign and driving to the nearby McDonald’s, but only to buy a coffee to get them through the drive to Burger King. The implication? A Whopper is worth the drive.
It is a clever way to respond to the McDonald’s ad, while not denying that Burger King has fewer locations than its competitor. The new ad refocuses the claim, turning the fact into a positive, and showing that brand loyalists are willing to go the distance.
The Big Picture
In the spirit of Backlash Brands, more brands are embracing Aggro-tising and facing their competitors head on in quick-response ads. For more on this idea and other themes of Backlash Brands, watch our introduction video.
Most Recent
1
It’s time for brands to engage with de-growth:
The pace of the last decade combined with a tumultuous 2020 is driving...
2
Agile Artisans:
Revealing a more resilient business model, ethical fashion and homeware...
3
Upgrading urban mobility for the pandemic age:
With public transport use declining worldwide, innovators reveal how more...
4
The next luxury market? It’s the virtual world:
Unmatereality is a Singapore-based studio digitising and gamifying luxury...
5
Trans-positive beauty and wellness campaigns:
Historically entrenched in cisgender heteronormative ideals, health and...
6
Will Covid quell fashion’s ‘more is more’ mindset?:
With smaller brands struggling to stay afloat and larger brands left with...
7
How OffLimits is redefining emotional eating:
Emily Elyse Miller, founder of OffLimits, discusses disrupting the cereal...
8
Money Market: Gen Alpha:
With Generation Alpha largely viewing money as a digital concept, brands’...
9
Low-impact Interfaces:
To cut the carbon emissions of our online consumption, designers are...
10
It’s time to decolonise education, say Gen Z:
Galvanised by the Black Lives Matter movement, Generation Z are using social...
11
Chinese Travel Market:
With Chinese consumers keen to unleash their pent-up spending power, tourism...
12
Moral Commerce:
In the wake of Black Lives Matter, consumers are seeking brand allies and...
13
Inter-Covid Fashion:
In the inter-Covid period, fashion choices are becoming informed by health...
14
Raw and real: a new era for influencer marketing:
A migration towards smaller influencers more deeply in touch with their...
15