openUReyes - Alternative News Blog

Burger King's (BKC) increasingly obnoxious attempts to lure young dopes to its horrible food may have gone too far this time. Some (likely slightly older) dopes have come up with a print ad shamelessly evoking oral sex to peddle the "BK Super Seven Incher" in Singapore.

I can't help but imagine a fellow in a backward ball cap and cargo shorts, his pockets full of roofies, writing this copy for the oblong sandwich:

IT'LL BLOW YOUR MIND AWAY. Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled with the NEW BK SUPER SEVEN INCHER. Yearn for more after you taste the mind-blowing burger that comes with a single beef patty, topped with American cheese, crispy onions and the A1 Thick and Hearty Steak Sauce.

They got two "blows" in there. Nice. The sandwich (by itself an obscenity), slathered in unnaturally ultra-white mayonnaise, is floating in the air directly across from the disturbingly pale profile of a young, gape-mouthed woman who looks frightened to death of the manly meat. Sexy!

But, now, wait a minute. Let's look at that copy again. The ad is aimed at young men, right? Of course it is. So why does it tell them to "fill your desire for something long," etc.? Is that a purposeful bit of sublimation (know your audience!) or is our cargo-pantsed copy jockey himself like one of those guys from my high school's wrestling team—that is, even more of a stereotypical frat boy than I had at first imagined?

Hard to know.

As I noted the other day, Burger King's weird, often stupid/sometimes clever campaigns have helped to lift the chain from its depths of about a half-decade ago. But, in the United States, anyway, they haven't helped it close the widening gap between it and McDonald's (MCD), which has stuck with a more normal, value-oriented, and much more successful marketing approach.

Copyranter calls it the "most overtly blow-jobby ad I've ever seen." And copyranter has seen a lot of blow-jobby ads.

Gawker notes that the "only thing this ad is missing is the disclaimer that you'll actually get fewer blowjobs if you eat these sandwiches, but perhaps that's the 'genius' of advertising that we simpletons on the outside just don't get."

(NOTE: Like everyone else who has written about this, I initially blamed the ad campaign on Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the agency that handles Burger King's ads in the United States. Although this latest campaign, apparently limited to Singapore, seems to fit in, sort of, with Crispin Porter's other campaigns aimed at young men, a Crispin Porter spokeswoman has confirmed that another agency is responsible for it. I have updated this post to omit references to Crispin Porter. )
http://www.reuters.com/article/bigMoney/idUS383377696120090624

More advertising filth http://www.manolith.com/2009/06/29/24-awesomely-lascivious-and-sexually-...