{"id":480,"date":"2020-02-24T10:44:51","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T16:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capertongillett.com\/blog\/?p=480"},"modified":"2020-02-24T10:44:51","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T16:44:51","slug":"today-in-fast-food-advertising-mouth-watering-vs-stomach-turning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capertongillett.com\/blog\/today-in-fast-food-advertising-mouth-watering-vs-stomach-turning\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in fast-food advertising: mouth-watering vs. stomach-turning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mmm, nummy. (Credit Burger King)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I love a good cheeseburger. And not in a \u201cI\u2019m not like other girls<\/em>, I like junk food<\/em>\u201d kind of way — more in a \u201cif you haven\u2019t had a Fat Elvis from the Vortex in Atlanta, you haven\u2019t lived\u201d kind of way. And a \u201cthe best burger in Birmingham came from 26, RIP\u201d kind of way. The best burger of my life? Came from a Wendy\u2019s in the Atlanta airport at one in the morning after a nine-hour flight from London and just missing the shuttle back home by five minutes<\/em>, and God, that sizzling square patty was the most beautiful thing I\u2019d seen all day. So I\u2019m not claiming to be a burger gourmet — merely a big burger fan.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then Burger King was, like, \u201cHey, want to know some stuff about our burgers? I bet you don\u2019t!\u201d<\/p>\n

Seriously, though, I commend these fast-food restaurants for coming up with attention-grabbing ideas. Shoving through the fray to get consumer attention is a real battle, and if that means stepping away from \u201clook at how appetizing our food is!\u201d positioning from time to time, sometimes a gross-out ad is in order. I mean, maybe not for me, because I think I just discovered a weaker stomach than I\u2019d known I had. But for most people. Clearly, I\u2019m sold on a burger either way.<\/p>\n

Burger King Moldy Burgers<\/h2>\n

I will give Burger King one thing: The new Whopper ad<\/a> is super<\/em> evocative. If you\u2019ve ever seen any of the videos where armchair scientists have left out fast food items to see how long they take to decompose, you understand how a month-old burger, still looking fresh and in its prime, can be, in and of itself, disconcerting. So in that respect, a greenish, grayish, fuzzy Whopper does actually manage to convey an image of freshness.<\/p>\n

In all other respects, though, a greenish, grayish, fuzzy Whopper conveys an image of greenish-gray fuzz on a Whopper, like the Demogorgon\u2019s last snack before it dragged Barb into the Upside-Down. (RIP Barb.) So as a way of announcing that Burger King is removing artificial preservatives from their food, the new ad campaign is pretty effective. As a way of saying, \u201cWe\u2019re removing artificial preservatives, now don\u2019t you want to eat one up, open wide, here comes the airplane<\/em>,\u201d it\u2026 might could use some work.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s Burger Candles<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t hate an offbeat candle scent. I\u2019ve found myself enjoying some unusual ones. Tobacco? Actually pretty okay. Leather? Sure. So while I haven\u2019t personally experienced McDonald\u2019s flight of Quarter Pounder-themed candles<\/a>, I\u2019m open to the thought that a beef-scented candle might even work. A ketchup-scented candle has potential, and the sesame-seed bun-scented candle sounds downright tasty. (Pickle? Cheese? I’ll hear arguments.)<\/p>\n

But take a moment to imagine with me: You work in advertising. Your parents get you a gift that\u2019s ad-related, see, because you\u2019re in advertising, and the next time they come to visit, they want to see you enjoying it, and now you\u2019re sitting in your living room, pouring coffee as an onion-scented candle suffuses your home with the aroma of a stale fast-food grease vat. So parents (significant others, etc.), if you want to give a cute brand-adjacent gift, allow me to suggest the \u201cQuarter Pounder with Love\u201d locket.<\/p>\n

Also concerned that the beef candle is actually called \u201c100% Fresh Beef**.\u201d Whether in burger form or candle form, those asterisks scare me.<\/p>\n

KFC Finger-Licking Ad<\/h2>\n

KFC has always promised that its chicken is \u201cfinger-lickin\u2019 good,\u201d and fast-food fans in the UK get to see exactly how finger-lickin\u2019 that is courtesy of Mother London\u2019s new ad campaign<\/a>. The ads show people\u2026 lickin\u2019 their fingers, mid-KFC feast, set to Chopin\u2019s Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2.<\/p>\n