Whopper Neutrality

By DAVID the Agency, Miami, USA

For Burger King Brand Burger King Institutional

Winner in category Direct

In subcategory Consumer Marketing

WPPED Cream
Project Description
QSR in the U.S. is one of the most competitive industries in the world. Burger King competes in an industry dominated by one competitor, McDonald’s (3x in size and SOV), and flanked by another, Wendy’s, vying for 2nd place. In order to remain competitive against such odds, Burger King has to find creative ways to punch above its weight and budget.
The brief, therefore, was to break through the competitive clutter in a way which delivered a multiple of return on investment by way of earned media and attention. And to do it while demonstrating the iconicness of their signature product, the Whopper, and exemplifying the core brand values of inclusivity.
Prove out Whopper love through a topical subject. The repeal of Net Neutrality was a hot button topic in the US. It was a decision made by the FCC (Federal Communication Committee) that granted Internet Service Providers the power to control speeds and data on the Internet, having the ability to discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform or application.
The biggest problem was that the issue was really complex, and most people didn’t understand the consequences of the repeal.
But what do people understand? A Whopper. We used the relatable process of ordering a Whopper to make an otherwise unrelatable and complicated subject suddenly easy to understand. By dramatizing what could happen if net neutrality were repealed through a demonstration of fast and slow lane Whoppers, we made the subject more clear and taught the country what net neutrality in fact means to their lives.
Agency Solution
We set out to create an educational video that used our restaurant’s service and products as a metaphor, recreating the scenarios that people will experience with the repeal of Net Neutrality. We called it: Whopper Neutrality.
The cashiers explained to real and unsuspecting guests how the new policy was affecting speeds and service, how the access to the Whopper had been delayed on purpose to promote other products, or that if they wanted faster service they’d have to pay a premium to access slow, fast or hyper fast MBPS (Making Burgers Per Second).
With all the real reactions we created our online film, that we released just weeks after the repeal of Net Neutrality started.
We published it on all the social media platforms for the brand, as well as a thread on Reddit where the biggest community of active Net Neutrality supporters lived.
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