Notorious Beam Team

Bonkers. But getting a fair bit of media coverage. And very true to form of Burger King to do something whacky that centres on their superior burgers. You can see this through recent work on Whopper Freakout, Whopper Bars and the recent Whopper Virgins campaign. This is from Brand Republic:

"Fast-food chain Burger King has launched a meat-scented cologne in the US for under $4 (£2.56) and has aptly called it "Flame".

The men's fragrance, which is being sold at a New York retailer and online, is being touted as "the scent of seduction, with a hint of flame-broiled meat".

Meat-loving consumers can buy a bottle of the scent for just $3.99.

Burger King has also launched a website called FireMeetsDesire.com to accompany the cologne.

The site reads: "The Whopper sandwich is America's favourite burger. Flame by BK captures the essence of that love and gives it to you."

Users are also greeted with the caption: "Now you can set the mood for whatever you're in the mood for."





Burger King released the fragrance earlier this week and an informal survey carried out by the Boston Herald revealed that some men would actually wear it."

From Slashfood:

"You've probably seen those Burger King commercials where hidden cameras capture the reactions of customers who are told that they've discontinued the Whopper. Some folks get mildly irritated while a few people go ballistic. They're probably lucky someone didn't go over the edge and injure someone because of it. My favorite is the woman in the car who tells the person taking drive-thru orders that she wants to talk to the manager. As if he would have any say in what corporate decides will be discontinued.

But the ads have worked. The sales of Whoppers increased by a double digit percentage. It's not the only hoax BK pulled on customers. Another day the Burger King locations (in Las Vegas) said they didn't have Whoppers but gave the customers McDonald's and Wendy's burgers instead.

Customers didn't like that, but I wonder how many customers actually didn't get upset?"

Here's part of the article from WSJ

"Burger King, which began running the TV ads Dec. 9, credits the campaign for helping boost Whopper sales in the quarter that ended in December by a double-digit percentage. It "drove significant brand relevance and incremental sales," executives said on an earnings conference call last week.

The videotaped hoax was a twist on a market research technique called "deprivation research," in which marketers measure how loyal consumers are to a brand or product by taking it away from them. The insight gained helps marketers design new marketing and ad ploys that will resonate better with consumers."

This video will explain it better than a few quotes ever could.



What's brilliant is the way that it has self selected Burger King's outraged fans and made them into super charged brand advocates with their vociferous passion for the Whopper spread all over YouTube. It's also positioned the Whopper as America's favourite burger - just what it set out to achieve.

Hoopla. Well done CP&B.