Burger King: We're Not Moving

"We hear you. We’re not moving, we’re just growing and finding ways to serve you better. As part of the announcement made today, both Burger King Corp. and Tim Hortons will continue to operate as independent brands. We’ll just be under common ownership. Our headquarters will remain in Miami where we were founded more than 60 years ago and business will continue as usual at our restaurants around the world. The decision to create a new global QSR leader with Tim Hortons is not tax-driven – it’s about global growth for both brands. BKC will continue to pay all of our federal, state and local U.S. taxes. We’re proud of the heritage of Burger King and will maintain our long-standing commitment to our employees, franchisees and the local communities we serve. The WHOPPER isn’t going anywhere." - Posted yesterday to Burger King's Facebook page. Most commenters aren't buying it.

Breitbart Headline Of The Day

Details.

Burger King Heads North

Burger King has announced that it will move its headquarters to Canada in an $11B merger with the Tim Hortons donut chain.

The new global company will be headquartered in Canada, but each brand will be managed independently, with Burger King retaining its U.S. offices in Miami, the two companies said in a joint statement. The new base in Canada could allow Burger King to reduce its U.S. tax bill -- a recent report by KPMG found that total tax costs in Canada are about 46% lower than in the U.S. These so-called inversions allow companies to transfer money earned outside the U.S. to the parent company without paying additional U.S. taxes. As more companies have used inversions, President Obama and Congress have publicly criticized the moves because it cuts into U.S. tax revenue.

The merger will vault BK over Subway as the world's third-largest fast food conglomerate with $23B in combined sales. There's no word on whether Tim Hortons will ever get that apostrophe.

Tony Perkins Has The Burger King Sadz

"When Burger King says 'have it your way,' they aren't just talking about food. Hello, I'm Tony Perkins with the Family Research Council in Washington. Is it Burger King or Burger Queen? Customers in San Francisco aren't so sure after the chain's new Proud Whopper. Local stores unveiled the rainbow menu to coincide with LGBT week. Although nothing's different about the burger, executives hope the wrapper will make a statement. But even in liberal San Francisco, Time reports, some customers have a beef with the burgers. 'If that's what they're gonna do,' said one person, 'they won't [have] my business anymore.' That's the beauty of the free market. If Burger King wants to cater to a fringe group at the expense of other customers, that's their choice. Just like it's Cracker Barrel's decision to support natural marriage and the celebrities who advocate it. The problem is those companies who say they believe in debate and then try to silence it. That's the biggest whopper of them all." - KKK-affiliated hate group leader Tony Perkins, speaking on his national radio show.

AFA Has The Burger King Sadz

The American Family Association is ever so pissed with Burger King and is asking their followers to sign onto this boycott letter:

I am offended by Burger King's stunt in offering a so-called "Proud Whopper" in San Francisco. What were you thinking? Your celebrated promotion of cross-dressers and homosexuality is an insult to families and I find your celebration of abhorrent behavior as a reason to dine elsewhere. I hope you will learn from this publicity blunder and realize that while most stores did not participate in the corporate-approved program, the damage has been done and affects the image of all Burger King outlets.

AFA president Tim Wildmon warns: "Unless there is some pushback from consumers, there is a real possibility that they could expand this promotion." (Tipped by JMG reader DM)

Bryan Fischer Has The Burger King Sadz

Proud Whopper Wrapper: $1000 On eBay

There have been no bids so far.

Burger King Posts "Proud Whopper" Video In Support Of LGBT Rights

This morning I reported on Burger King's launch of the "Proud Whopper" campaign over the weekend during San Francisco Pride. The promised supporting video has already arrived and it's really quite lovely. Just in from Burger King's promotional team:

Burger King Worldwide, Inc. is broadcasting a widespread message in support of self-expression with a digital film launching today on YouTube.The film was created at a BURGER KING® restaurant at the heart of the San Francisco Pride Parade route where a limited edition PROUD WHOPPER® Sandwich was added to the menu. Guests who ordered the PROUD WHOPPER® Sandwich were surprised because it is in fact, the same iconic fire-grilled WHOPPER® Sandwich beloved since 1957, but wrapped in rainbow colored paper inscribed with a message reading: “we are all the same inside.” The film captures the brand's new “BE YOUR WAY” spirit through emotionally charged reactions. The written message inside the PROUD WHOPPER® Sandwich wrapper, “we are all the same inside,” speaks volumes and truly showcases what it means to “BE YOUR WAYSM”. The intent of the “BE YOUR WAY” global attitude is not to tell anyone how they should live, but rather aims to elevate “HAVE IT YOUR WAY®” to an even more meaningful place.

Oh my yes, the Whopper sadz will be delicious.

NOTE: While the Proud Whopper is only being sold at the one Market Street location, there is this: "All PROUD WHOPPER® Sandwich sales will be donated to the BURGER KING McLAMORE  Foundation, for scholarships benefiting LGBT college-bound, high school seniors graduating in spring 2015."

Burger King Launches Pride Whopper

Via TIME Magazine:

Behind the counter at a Burger King in the heart of San Francisco is a rainbow-colored menu board advertising a product that the fast-food behemoth has never sold before and isn’t selling anywhere else: The Proud Whopper. When customers visiting during Sunday’s pride parade asked cashiers what made this Whopper different from a standard-issue burger, they simply said, “I don’t know.” The mystery was revealed once diners opened the rainbow-colored wrapper and got a taste: absolutely nothing is different about this burger, nothing at all. To emphasize the point, the interior of the wrapper comes with a second message: “We Are All the Same Inside.”

There's a video coming to support the campaign. And of course, the Freepers and Twitchy are going crazy.

HACKED: Burger King's Twitter Account

Burger King Launches Bacon Sundae

This should get PETA in an uproar.

Burger King wants to lure customers this summer with a barbecue party - and a bacon sundae. The world's second biggest hamburger chain on Thursday is launching several pork, beef and chicken sandwiches as limited time offers. And for a sweet ending, the company is also offering a bacon sundae - vanilla soft serve with fudge, caramel, bacon crumbles and a piece of bacon - that started in Nashville, Tenn. earlier this year. The salty-sweet dessert clocks in at 510 calories, 18 grams of fat and 61 grams of sugar.

My love for bacon knows no bounds...wait, maybe it does.

Do Not Want

The Brussel Sprouts Whopper, now on sale at Burger King in the UK. Surprisingly, it's not going over too well.

The Windows 7 Whopper

Burger King is promoting Microsoft's latest OS in Japan with the Windows 7 Whopper.

Confirming our belief that Japan is at once among the coolest and craziest places on this planet we all call home is Burger King's exclusive Windows 7 Whopper. Seven stacked beef patties extend your usual Whopper to over five inches in height and the whole thing costs an appropriate ¥777 (or $8.55). It'll be available for one week only -- or seven days, get it?

It'll Blow Your...Uh, What?

Burger King's ad for their "super seven incher" is being described by Entertainment Weekly as "the day that subtlety died."

As you can see here, the woman in said advertisement is about to go down on said Super Seven Incher with a suggestive tagline that uses the word "blow." Mmhmm, I think it's safe to assume that such humor will only be going over the head of those younger than, oh, about 13 years old. (Sorry, parents!) The "copy" at the bottom of the ad -- not sure that you can even seen it here -- takes the whole thing even further: "Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled with the NEW BK SUPER SEVEN INCHER," it says.

Flame-broil scented body spray, the creepy King, Facebook apps, and now this. Somebody at BK's agency is doing a really good job of keeping them in the news. But they'll never, ever top Subservient Chicken.

Facebook Kills Whopper Promotion

Facebook has stepped in and deleted Burger King's Whopper promotion because it violated their rule about notifying people when you unfriend them.

While many trivial actions do prompt Facebook to post an alert to all your friends — adding a photo, changing your relationship status, using Fandango to buy tickets to “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” — striking someone off your list simply is not one of them. It is this policy that Burger King ran afoul of this month with its “Whopper Sacrifice” campaign, which offered a free hamburger to anyone who severed the sacred bonds with 10 of the friends they had accumulated on Facebook.

Facebook suspended the program because Burger King was sending notifications to the castoffs letting them know they’d been dropped for a sandwich (or, more accurately, a tenth of a sandwich).The campaign, which boasted of ending 234,000 friendships, is history now — Burger King chose to end it rather than tweak it to fit Facebook’s policy — but the same can hardly be said of the emerging anxiety it tapped. As social networking becomes ubiquitous, people with an otherwise steady grip on social etiquette find themselves flummoxed by questions about “unfriending” people: how to do it, when to do it and how to get away with it quietly.

Facebook doesn't like the hurt feelings that come with an unfriending notice and prefer that such actions hopefully go unnoticed.

Burger King's (Friendship) Killer App

Man, you really gotta hand it to Burger King's ad people for finding all these innovative ways to get folks talking. First there was the creepily hilarious Subservient Chicken, then the hamburger-scented body spray, and now, probably best of all, this.

It's a common problem for anyone who joined Facebook some time ago. You look at your friend list and wonder who these people are. Burger King wants to help consumers do something about it. The fast-food chain has released the Whopper Sacrifice application on Facebook. The app rewards people with a coupon for BK's signature burger when they cull 10 friends. Each time a friend is excommunicated, the application sends a notification to the banished party via Facebook's news feed explaining that the user's love for the unlucky soul is less than his or her zeal for the Whopper. The effort crafted by Crispin Porter + Bogusky came about after agency creative staffers confronted the too-many-friends scenario themselves on Facebook.

A free Whopper for every ten people you unfriend? Some of you could eat free for years. And there doesn't seem to be any provision against re-friending, say, after lunch. Sure, somebody will create a fake group for everyone to friend and unfriend, but BK still gets their message out. Very very clever.

Even If You Don't Have A Whopper, You Can Still Smell Like One

Gothamist reports that Burger King has just launched a Whopper-scented men's body spray, the perfect stocking stuffer for that PETA member roommate of yours.

Just in time for your mom Santa to toss this in your Christmas stocking, Burger King has released a limited-edition men's body spray that evokes the smell of freshly broiled Whoppers. But isn't this what they spray on the burgers already for authenticity? No! According to a press release, "The King is setting hearts ablaze for the holidays with his new scent of choice. FLAME™, a new men's body spray by Burger King Corp., features the scent of seduction with the hint of flame-broiled meat. A favorite of the King, FLAME™ is available for purchase for a limited time at select Ricky's retailers in-store or online."

Back when I haunted the bear bars in SF, I used to joke that I was putting tiny dabs of potato salad behind each ear before I went out. I imagine this Burger King product might work a little better. The site for Flame is fun to play around on, parts of it are almost as creepy as Burger King's Subservient Chicken - something that provided endless hilarity to my office mates a few years ago.