The McWhopper: an idea too beautiful to live? Or, depending on your perspective, too horrible?
Burger King on Wednesday launched a huge proposal aimed directly at McDonald's, beseeching the burger behemoth to join them for one day in creating and serving a Whopper-Big Mac hybrid called the McWhopper. To "settle the beef." See what they did there?
It would take place at a pop-up restaurant on Sept. 21 in conjunction with Peace One Day, which is an initiative that calls for a day of global nonviolence. Burger King said its proposal was "100 percent sincere," aimed at getting the world talking about Peace Day.
.@McDonalds let’s #SettleTheBeef to raise awareness for@PeaceOneDay. #McWhopperProposal http://t.co/GEXRHve53D pic.twitter.com/o3APQ2QzKC
— Burger King (@BurgerKing) August 26, 2015
The response from McDonald's? A decided no thanks. In a statement on Facebook, McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook threw more than a little shade at BK's marketing ploy, instead asking to partner up on something bigger, a "meaningful global effort."
We're in some disagreement in the office about who won the marketing game today.
Burger King clearly unleashed some serious social media brilliance upon the world with the campaign. If the McWhopper can't be real, the next best thing just might be the McWhopper Tumblr site. I don't even like Whoppers, and yet the website still made me wish that McDonald's had said yes to this unholy burger chimera. I mean, they even proposed designs the uniforms the McWhopper pop-up restaurant workers would wear.
Then there's the McDonald's response, which some thought came off as lame and holier-than-thou. My colleague Shannon Sutlief pointed out that "it felt very Don Draper/change the conversation. They knew they couldn't beat the cleverness so they tried to seem above it instead." Others, however, thought it seemed like McDonald's gave a measured, thoughtful response to a rather crass campaign from Burger King.
What's your take? Who owned whom?
