Rampaging Preservatives Beaten, Fried and Set on Fire

The Burger King is NEVER going to beat Ronald McDonald Never Won't happen. More on my prediction in just a sec. Just when you thought you have seen everything, along comes a doozy of an ad. In a new commercial, only being shown in Mexico, natural ingredients are seen infiltrating a closed Burger King restaurant in the dead of night as they battle to take out the artificial ingredients perceived to be contained in fast food. The action: a team of anthropomorphized burger toppings violently dispose of artificial ingredients in a manner that iconic director Quentin Tarantino would thoroughly enjoy. This commercial is in the same vein to that of the absolutely gross “Moldy Whopper” campaign to highlight that Burger King’s Whoppers do not include any preservatives. In case you missed it, back in 2019, the Moldy Whopper campaign features intriguingly high-resolution photography and video of a Whopper being consumed not by humans, but rather by the voracious maw of time itself. In other words, we get to see a Whopper rotting. Each ad shows a Whopper whose ingredients are being engulfed in mold, alongside a date stamp letting you know how long the burger has been exposed to the elements (typically about a month). The tagline describes the images as “the beauty of no artificial preservatives.” Here is the thing: No one cared and it did not move the revenue needle one notch. This is why McDonalds will forever be the burger king. They understand their customers. Common traits:

• Overweight
• Diabetic
• Want food fast
• Want cheap food
• Don't care about preservatives
• Lower socio-economic scale
• Nutrition is the last thing on their mind (nutrition has probably NEVER entered their mind)

Ever wait in line at a Burger King? It is not fast food. McDonalds has a system for creating their food. A very detailed system. Bun, burger, 2 pickles, squirt mustard, squirt ketchup, bun. Ingredients that have been tested over decades. All manner of guesswork and human interaction removed so as to maintain product consistency (notice I did not say quality). The Founder starring Michael Keeton as Ray Kroc illustrates this very well. This is a much watch movie for serious entrepreneurs and marketers. Burger King is focusing on the wrong things. And by wrong things, I mean things consumers don't care about. Here is the really sad part, A Big Mac is Healthier than a Whopper. See the PS below. How about you? Are you focusing on the right things. Things that will move the needle?

Remember, you won't profit unless you implement, Vance "5 Guys kinda burger guy" Morris PS. The Whopper has an astounding amount of calories at 660, while the Big Mac has 540 calories. Whopper has 90 milligrams of cholesterol and the Big Mac has 80. The Whopper has 49 grams of carbohydrates and the Big Mac has 46 grams. The next three categories that need to be evaluated are amounts of saturated fat, trans. fat, and sodium. In the trans. fat and saturated fat categories, the Big Mac wins narrowly with 1g and 10g while the Whopper has 1.5g of trans. fat and 12g of saturated fat. So far, the Big Mac is surprisingly the healthier choice. The last three categories of nutrition are grams of sugars, fiber, and protein. In grams of sugar, the Big Mac wins again with 9g while the Whopper has 11g. Finally, in grams of fiber, McDonalds wins narrowly this time, with 3g, while Burger King comes close with 2g.