Madison Avenue Agency Fails Advertising 101
October 9th, 2008 by Bob Bly
Last night I saw a Burger King TV commercial in which two guys dressed in hamburger costumes go to Wendy’s to order hamburgers, only to conclude that Wendy’s doesn’t offer burgers as good as BK.
The primary visual displayed on the screen throughout most of the commercial is the giant Wendy’s sign in front of the Wendy’s the burger guys go to.
In their argument with the server about who has the best burger, the name “Wendy’s” is mentioned about the same number of times as the name “Burger King.”
Consequently, the average viewer who sees the commercial is more likely to think of Wendy’s than he is of BK.
In fact, if he was paying scant attention as so many viewers do, he may even think he has just seen a Wendy’s commercial.
Does BK’s ad agency not realize they have made a giant blunder here?
Hard for me to accept that grown adults hold those agency jobs, created the commercial, and thinks it’s good — and that grown adults at BK approved it.
Did none of these folks pass Advertising 101?
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 8:39 am and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:48 am
I agree completely.
But then, I thought BK blundered big time as soon as they made the King. I used to go to BK all the time and looked forward to it, until he came along. Never been there since then - have never felt anything other than wanting to stay away from the place.
Not that their food is on the eating plan we just started either. *grin*
October 9th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Maybe the next commercial will show the King knocking off Ronald McDonald with an automatic weapon.
October 9th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Hi Bob
Haven’t noticed the commercial yet, but it sounds like another example of Madison Avenue thinking they are in the entertainment business - not the sales business.
What makes it worse is that their clients think the same way.
October 9th, 2008 at 9:58 am
I miss the good old days when you didn’t mention the competitor by name (or logo). You only talked about the great selling points of your own product–you didn’t knock the competition. If you’re going to do that, maybe you should have to pay the price of the viewer not being clear who’s the best!
Kristi Holl
Writer’s First Aid blog
October 9th, 2008 at 10:44 am
It’s funny that you mentioned them showing a competitor in the ad…last night I was watching that goofy show ‘Ad Persuasion’ and they showed the “classic” Pepsi commercial where the Coke & Pepsi drivers were bonding in a diner and when they tried each other’s product, the Coke guy wouldn’t give the Pepsi back and a fight ensued.
They never seem to mention whether these wonderful commercials ended up increasing the sales of the product they were advertising.
If people buy because of how your product or service benefits their life, then spending lots of money to basically advertisie your competition seems silly.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Maybe the people who made the spot were watching TOO MANY POLITICAL COMMERCIALS …
!
October 9th, 2008 at 11:24 am
if an ad like this is really really targeted to a special group i think it will do it’s job.
For example: let us say (i am unfamiliar with fast food restaurants in the united states) that BK is the place for teenagers and Wendys is a place where their parents go (W’s is a no go) than it is no damage to mention the apparent competitor.
But either then you watched the wrong TV-show, Bob, or they showed the ad to the wrong people.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Gerold: the commercial runs on prime-time network television in the U.S., where virtually everyone is familiar with both BK and Wendy’s. The two chains have locations throughout the nation and for the most part target a similar audience, as far as I can tell.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Wow! What a blunder.
I could not imagine how this ad could improve burger sales for BK, it is helping out W too much.
My question to them is, who is accountable if the burger count doesn’t change? Are their ads and resulting measured to see.
I am sure the Wendy’s crew will be watching.
Fiona Fell
www.FionaFell.com.au
October 10th, 2008 at 10:30 am
That’s the kicker right there Fiona…no one is accountable! No one ever has to be accountable because they package their crappy ad campaigns as “branding” and “image awareness” and never give a thought as to whether it actually increases sales or not.
The sad part is that many small business follow this type of advertising model thinking it’s the way things should be done…no wonder 90% of them end up failing.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:38 am
I saw the ad the other night and had exactly the same response, but the only reason I knew it was a BK ad was that my husband wasn’t in the room so the TV wasn’t muted during the ad. If it had been, the ad would have looked like a Wendy’s spot.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I agree - this is a classic mistake. How did they think they were playing up a positive, memorable impression of their business when they spend so much time promoting the the comp?
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
[…] […]
November 17th, 2008 at 5:52 am
dianacacy said:
“But then, I thought BK blundered big time as soon as they made the King. I used to go to BK all the time and looked forward to it, until he came along.”
Well dianacacy, if I am not wrong the king has been BK’s advertising mascot since the 60s. In 2006, Burger King began using the original animated King design from the late 1960s and early 1970s commercials again. However, the second generation King is ‘portrayed as a sarcastic type who sometimes gets in trouble for his mischief making adventures’. Probably the reason why you, ‘never felt anything other than wanting to stay away from the place.’
Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burger_King
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May 6th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Stupidity in the TV Industrial complex is rampant. There are currently two beer ads - one for Coors and one for I think it is Miller that both use a silly convention of people alternately experiencing broiling and frigid weather to illustrate I think, the frosty pleasure of the beer - the spots are so alike they are both ineffective.