Burger King Delivers a Bite of Bliss

Static out-of-home advertising presents marketers with a unique set of challenges — given the need to juggle a multitude of priorities when people are often only engaging with it in a fleeting way. While drawing the attention of passersby and stopping them in their tracks remains a constant regardless of the channel, platform, or format, leaving a lasting brand imprint is where advertisers often stumble when deploying OOH creative.

Burger King’s new OOH campaign titled ‘Bundles of Joy’ hit the streets over recent weeks, with it built on the insight that 39% of mothers nominate burgers and fries as their go-to post-birth meal. The campaign aims to position Burger King at the very top of the list when it comes to these cravings. To do so, it depicts a series of mothers during one of their most vulnerable moments — nursing a new-born (while unceremoniously devouring one of the fast-food chain’s iconic flame-grilled/charbroiled burgers!).

The approach certainly delivered on advertising’s first objective: catching people’s attention (albeit for both good and bad reasons!). However, while recent reports suggested that males were more opposed to the campaign, our research (which spoke to a nationally representative sample of Americans) indicated that campaign polarization didn’t fall between gender lines.

In fact, females found the campaign considerably more annoying and irritating than males, with it eliciting intense emotions such as anger among this group — feelings that were completely absent among males. By the same token, positive emotions were also elevated among females — with the campaign triggering stronger feelings of happiness, amusement, and warm-heartedness. This ultimately led to females finding the campaign more likable.

✅ “I can relate to this. Who wouldn’t want a delicious burger after delivering a human into the world!”

❌ “It rubbed me the wrong way. The message to me was the mother was more focused on eating Burger King than focusing on her newborn.”

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In-line with this, it was females and those with children in the household that better connected with the insight, resulting in stronger predisposition toward the fast-food chain.

✅ “I liked how it gave the impression of having a satisfying meal while feeding their baby after giving birth because as a mother I remember how hungry I was after hours of labor and delivery and a whopper would have really hit the spot.”

❌ “It looks very private and to be showing somebody breast-feeding and eating Burger King.”

But this aside, the campaign’s biggest challenge centered around a lack of clarity in what it was trying to tell people. Without knowledge of the claim that “39% of mothers crave burgers more than anything else post-birth”, many were left scratching their heads trying to connect all the dots together. Was the intention to portray the burgers as so irresistible that they’re better than giving birth? Or was it to convey that Burger King has convenient delivery options so it’s able to be enjoyed anywhere and everywhere?

It’s in this respect that the delineation between creative and clever needs to be carefully balanced by marketers to ensure advertising delivers commercial outcomes. But equally, we acknowledge that this is a more difficult juggling act when deploying a campaign through channels that people generally only engage with in a fleeting way. While it’s true that wider communications may help to embed an idea before the OOH serves more of a reinforcement/reminder role, relying too heavily on pre-existing context and memories becomes increasingly fraught with danger as media fragmentation continues to escalate and the consumption of mass-reach channels rapidly declines.

The answer? Ensure your advertising is tested using a rigorous methodology among real consumers prior to being deployed in-market — enabling any potential blind spots to be picked up on as early as possible in the creative development process.