Laura McGeough’s Blog : Creativity & Freshness

Burger King

Last month I was hungry when the plane landed in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. I decided to get a bite to eat at the fast food restaurant Burger King. Removing my Whopper, fries, and Coke from the tray revealed very non-traditional tray liner artwork… a scene from the Veg City Airport. Veg City is where the Burger King vegetables live… Live it up, actually.

This scene depicts airport security at the Veg City Airport stopping an onion that is not up to Burger King standards. Just like airport security blocks bad people, Burger King similarly screen for only quality ingredients.

You know this onion is bad because they found in his bag: Botox, anti-aging cream, as well as copies of the magazines… “Wet Vegs”, “Playveg” and “Green & Horny.”

Then there’s the surly pickle about to perform a cavity search on the onion. Wow!

This artwork is fun to explore while you’re chomping your burger and fries… But – as I originally asked on my site – is it truly representing the brand Burger King wants to be? And even if there are different standards regarding the appropriateness of nudity in Europe versus the U.S., should Burger King be a different type brand in Europe than in the US?

A Split Audience

I originally posted this on my site on July 7th and have received over 100,000 hits and had to add bandwidth to support the traffic!

The comments I’ve received split into three camps.

• Group 1 – Those that feel this is the coolest artwork.
• Group 2 – Those that are going to boycott Burger King because they don’t want their children exposed to the inappropriate material. (Most people missed the fact that this is a European campaign and wouldn’t be seen in U.S. locations).
• Group 3 – Those that are slamming Group 2 for being so narrow minded. That they should be boycotting Burger King because of their junk food versus cartoon images.

There are a few of you marketers who have commented on my original question… is this tactic appropriate for brand Burger King?

The artwork is part of a series called Veg City supported with an on-line virtual city. In addition to the Airport tray liner other executions include:

The campaign for Burger King is by BBDO’s German Group Munich-based agency, .start. I’ve emailed them a couple of times, but have not received a response.

Take a look at the comments to my original post at the Idea Sandbox Blog.

You can view more images at Chrossn’s Flickr Photostream and by visiting the German Veg City website.

Is this adult-themed humor on-target with the Burger King brand? Has BK shifted from competing with McDonald’s as a family restaurant to an adult destination – closer to Hooters?

source : http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2008/08/big_boobs_erotic_vegetables_an.html