Here’s what this Burger King cup says on the side:
Maybe you want a lot of ice. Maybe you want no ice. Maybe you want your top securely fastened, or maybe you want to go topless. Hmmm? Maybe you want to mix Coke and Sprite. Maybe you want to let your cup runneth over (we wish you wouldn’t.) Whatever you do, make sure to have things your way.
Alex Bogusky, partner and executive creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami, Burger King’s lead agency says the burger chain decided “to create a dialogue with the consumer” using the immense amount of white space available on its current packaging. The packaging is an extension of the “voice of the brand.”
Voice of the brand, eh? Funny, because the whole bragging about things you can get anywhere (e.g. “Maybe you want a lot of ice. Maybe you want no ice.)” sounds a lot like the fast food version of Saturday Night Live’s First CityWide Change Bank:
Maybe Burger King should end it’s cup copy with this: “We can handle special requests like that, usually in the same day.”
Daniel Haran
on 13 Oct 08“Sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed from within the United States “
The embedded version asks me to check my internet connection.
fildawg
on 13 Oct 08And how do they make money? Volume!
Greg
on 13 Oct 08What is interesting is that these seemingly obvious requests are not in fact a given. The fast food experience is terrible service. If you get the sandwich you ask for you should be grateful. Expecting an order as complicated as two sodas in one cup is a tall order.
Folks who frequent fast food places are used to this kind of mistreatment. They are happy to be assured that Burger King will fulfill these perfectly reasonable requests.
chimichangas
on 13 Oct 08great… hulu. don’t embed hulu. it won’t play unless you fake your location.
Björn Kristinsson
on 13 Oct 08Also, where does this ‘runneth’ come from? I’m pretty sure that’s the intransitive, while the sentence is transitive. Misplaced archaism is so annoying.
Dan Boland
on 13 Oct 08I detest cutesy copywriting like that. Quit trying to be edgy and start making french fries that don’t taste like week-old tempura.
Joe Sak
on 13 Oct 08@Greg wtf are you talking about? You fill your own drink at Burger King.
Benjy
on 13 Oct 08How long before Sarah Palin starts misquoting from these in her stump speeches?
Benjy
on 13 Oct 08Also… ironic that a job listing for Crispin Porter + Bogusky is showing for me in the Jobs Board bar at the top of the page.
Håvard Pedersen
on 13 Oct 08No Hulu for me :(
Andy Baio
on 13 Oct 08I think he’s referring to drive-through customers, which is about 70% of fast food traffic.
leethal
on 13 Oct 08Hello, I’m not from the US. This screenshot is most likely relevant to your interests: http://skitch.com/leethal/2tfe/us-only
Chris
on 13 Oct 08I’m a little disappointed by the much-hyped CPB. For being the hot new agency on the block, their work of late seems surprisingly derivative and safe. Chipotle has been doing interesting cup messages for awhile (as have many other chains).
You know who did a great job of talking directly to the audience in a fourth-wall-breaking way? Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Customizing the bump placards to talk to and joke with their viewers was a transformative move. I honestly think it’s one of the most important developments in TV in the last decade.
Dylan
on 13 Oct 08Oh, Matt. Sweetie, darling. No. Just, no.
Crispin Porter revived the 1974 “Have it your way” campaign in 2004. Burger King has been marketing it’s basic services for years while CityWide’s campaign is pretty recent.
Don’t pit these two campaigns against each other. They communicate a simple message that they offer service. You should include the millions of other ads that market service if you’re going to be drawing comparisons.
”...bragging about things you can get anywhere…” Oh, honey. Just stop, please. This really is the voice of their brand. If you don’t like it, you aren’t their target market. (They go for much younger folk).
I’m a little annoyed with the tone this blog is starting to take. Ya’ll need to stop complaining and go back to writing innovative and fun posts.
@ Dylan
on 13 Oct 08“Oh, Matt. Sweetie, darling. No. Just, no…. Oh, honey. Just stop, please.”
And you’re annoyed about tone?! Doctor Dylan, heal thy self.
Dave!
on 13 Oct 08Funny, because the whole bragging about things you can get anywhere (e.g. “Maybe you want a lot of ice. Maybe you want no ice.)”
Actually, you can’t get those anywhere, and that’s kind of the point… Try asking for that at many other fast-food joints, and it’s hit or miss. Many of them (McD’s is notorious) won’t give you no ice, for example.
zephyr
on 13 Oct 08How is this a “dialog with the customer”? Marketers are full of sh*t.
What The!?!
on 13 Oct 08CPD probably was paid several million for coming up with this “creative” concept. Microsoft only wasted 350 million with them. Maybe you have to pay 100 million for each word in their name and the last 50 (FIFTY!!!) million is for the actual work.
Mike
on 14 Oct 08If you’re going to say that this ad campaign is a rip off of that vaguely related SNL skit, it’s going to be hard to call anything original anymore.
JF
on 14 Oct 08Mike, Matt didn’t say it was a rip off of the SNL skit or based on the skit, he just said it reminded him of the skit. The words, the tone, the silliness of it all.
Jarkko
on 14 Oct 08Did someone say “It’s not its”?
Sheesh
on 15 Oct 08What a waste of a post. Yes, we get it, Burger King is a corporation and therefore “the enemy” in your eyes, but for God’s sake lighten up. I’d prefer some playful goofy copy like this over stark white boring cups or tripe like McDonald’s “diversity through uptopian ideals achieved via fast food” nonsense. What were they supposed to put on the side of the cup – an essay concerning Sartre’s The Transcendence of the Ego?
I’ve always defended you guys against people that claim you’re full of yourselves, but I’ve really been having second thoughts lately.
Rob
on 17 Oct 08Wow… hyper-critical!
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed BK’s marketing collateral over the past few years. Speaking of which, Matt, you should have said that Alex Bogusky SAID not says, considering the reference you’re making: an article from 2004. Don’t you have anything new to snub your nose at?
diarmuid ryan web design
on 18 Oct 08Indeed. Sometimes whitespace is a good thing in design, more is less and so forth..some can’t resist the temptation to plaster the whole canvas, no matter how silly the end result
This discussion is closed.