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
Deprogrammers:
Rejecting traditional education, this global youth community are using...
2
Reformation Generation:
Marking a new era of collaboration between brands and Generation Z,...
3
Fragrance Futures Market:
Convenience-led homebody lifestyles are forging new paths for fragrance...
4
The media-tels merging hospitality with tech:
With the worlds of technology and travel increasingly colliding,...
5
Four ways social media is reshaping shopping:
Social networks and gaming environments are opening up as shopping...
6
Fulfilment Furnishings:
The global pandemic has shifted people’s priorities to focus on home...
7
My computer tells me you’re bored – should you care?:
The use of facial and emotional recognition still splits opinion. But with...
8
The new-age vinegars re-inventing acidity:
Craft vinegar is evolving as a health food and a high-end pantry staple,...
9
Emerging Youth: Canada:
With little desire to return to normality, Canadian youth are seizing their...
10
Corporeal Privacy:
Privacy and data protection are now becoming part of our physical beings,...
11
Fashion 2030: Hacked, tracked and rationed:
As fashion counts the cost of its planetary impact, we future-gaze to 2030...
12
Anti-travel Airlines:
Under pressure to diversify revenue streams, airlines are creating customer...
13
MetaFactory creates internet-owned brands:
Drew Harding and Hammad Jutt, co-founders of MetaFactory, discuss how...
14
Bio-engineering the future of intimacy:
While technology has been blamed for affecting intimacy, artist Marija...
15