Burger King says: have it your way – we’ll tone down ads

Burger King has carried out some of the most interesting marketing of any major brand in the last few years. Freed from the shackles and scrutiny of being the market leader in fast food, it has introduced some very silly but memorable campaigns playing on sexuality, including one for the BK Super Seven Incher sandwich claiming it would “blow your mind away”.

Also, Burger King Flame body spray, which claims to be a “body spray of seduction”. All a little bit childish but quite entertaining and a million miles from its chief competitor McDonald’s’ ads all about being so family friendly. Now, it is pretty cheeky to suggest that fast food might improve your love life and we all know that using sex is a pretty cheap way to advertise, but at least it’s something different. All the BK marketing is also very digitally focused, which fits with these frugal times.

But now I hear word that in a battle between Burger King corporate and franchisees over whether to introduce a dollar double cheeseburger menu (corporate says “hell yeah”; franchisees seem less convinced), the ads are coming under scrutiny.

AdAge reports (perhaps in an attempt to smooth relations with franchisees) that the company says it will tone down the sexual tone of its marketing messages, with an internal memo attributed to the CMO, Russ Klein, acknowledging that some of its ads might have caused unintentional offence and saying that in future, the company would be more “sensitive”. The memo added that the ad agency and Klein would “tone down” creative executions, while promising to remain “edgy”.

Is this a good thing? Have BK’s ads gone just a bit too far lately? Only earlier this month, the company offended Hindus by using a depiction of the goddess Lakshmi associated with beef – something taboo for the religion.

Or do you like the sparky nature of the brand’s advertising and think the CMO should keep its cheeky campaigns running?