Burger King takes on the persona of an elementary school bully with its latest baffling campaign in France, taunting people in cities that don't have BK restaurants with photos of people in cities who do.
In a campaign from Buzzman, BK is encouraging people in the latter cities to take photos of themselves eating Whoppers—the restaurants are being equipped with photo booths so they can do just that. Then, those photos will appear on digital billboards in BK-less cities.
That's a whole mouthful of annoying.
The user-generated aspect is interesting. Getting people to take photos of themselves with your product for your use is smart, and BK will likely end up with a stockpile of people hamming it up with a Whopper.
But what's the point, in the end? To get people excited about BK and maybe have them lobby for one in their city? Then why taunt them? The stunt's pointlessness is revealed in the final voiceover: "You probably won't make any new friends. But hey, it's always good to make fun of others, right?" That's pretty dumb, tone-deaf messaging in today's world.
A big brand stooping to the level of Nelson in The Simpsons screaming "Ha ha!"? Eh, you guys can do better.
