Marketing In The News (Week 2)

  I came across an article on Adage about a recent failed Burger King commercial. I had already seen the commercial on Youtube prior, and noticed that it had a very unfavorable response. I did not understand why the commercial was getting so much negative attention at the time, until I came across this article that explained it.
  The commercial featured a Burger King employee that verbally triggered Google Home during the commercial. Google Home is apparently a voice activated speaker, and the employee in the commercial activated it in order to prolong the message of the commercial by google searching what was being advertised. In the commercial the employee said that he only had 15 seconds to explain everything about their product (the Whopper), so he continued the message by searching it via Google Home. The article explained that BK was not partnered with Google on this ad, and therefore they did not have permission to do this.
  Burger King tried to do something very different and unexpected with this ad and they succeeded. However, they did so in a way that was irresponsible. In my opinion, it would have been better if they asked for Google's permission before releasing the ad.
  Burger King's value proposition is that they have a very straight-forward menu that rarely changes. BK has offered the same food on their menu for a very long time and certain people like that. Customers don't have to be constantly updated on what is being offered, they can just order what they usually order without getting confused. BK improved an element of their value proposition, so the commercial was meant to advertise an improvement to the Whopper.
  Personally, I think this ad was very clever, but BK was foolish for not asking Google for their permission to do this. What I learned from this article is that it is good to take a risk and be different when marketing your company, but you should not be too reckless when doing so. Even though all publicity is good, I feel that the result of this ad would have turned out better for Burger King if they were more cautious before releasing it.