By Joshua Rhett Miller
June 30, 2009
An advertisement for Burger King's latest sandwich leaves little to the imagination and should be discontinued due to "distasteful" and unappetizing references to oral sex, advertising experts told FOXNews.com.
The print ad for the "BK Super Seven Incher" — a limited time promotion in Singapore, a society known around the world for its strict government controls of social conduct — shows the "mind-blowing" sandwich near the open mouth of a wide-eyed, red-lipsticked woman accompanied by the suggestive tagline: "It'll blow your mind away."
"Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled," the ad continues.
Mark Duffy, a blogger and an advertising copywriter at a major New York City firm, said the advertisement is among the "worst" he's ever seen in more than 17 years of industry experience.
"I've seen a lot of sexual innuendo ads and this is about the worst, especially for something as mainstream as Burger King," Duffy told FOXNews.com. "I was a little repulsed by it. It's really misogynistic to women and it's also unappetizing."
Duffy said it appeared the woman's face in the advertisement had been retouched to make it look like a doll and that the American cheese on the sandwich seemed a little too white.
"It's outlandish," he said. "They obviously didn’t hire a top-notch food photographer."
Duffy, who called on Burger King to terminate the ad, said there's little else marketers could have left to the imagination.
"It's really distasteful on the appetite level and on the social level," Duffy said. "The ad pretty much speaks for itself. How much more do they have to spell it out for you?"
Lauren Kuziner, a spokeswoman for Burger King, said the campaign was produced by a local Singaporean agency and not by the company's U.S. advertising firm, Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
"Burger King Corp. values and respects all of its guests," Kuziner said in a statement to FOXNews.com. "This print ad is running to support a limited time promotion in the Singapore market and is not running in the U.S. or any other markets. The campaign is supported by the franchisee in Singapore and has generated positive consumer sales around this limited time product offer in that market."
Kuziner declined to identify the Singapore-based firm and did not respond to requests for comment on whether Burger King had received complaints in connection to the advertisement.
Meanwhile, Scott Purvis, president of Gallup & Robinson, a marketing and advertising research firm in New Jersey, said the print pitch went "too far" and seemed unusual for a global brand like Burger King.
"This would be the kind of ad you might see for a smaller brand trying to get itself noticed," Purvis said. "It's probably something that wouldn't see the light of day in this country."
Purvis praised Burger King for its advertising "edginess" and he said sex in ads is an effective way to get consumer attention, but he noted that advertisements on average are recalled at a 20 percent higher rate if they contain sexually explicit images or messages.
"But the problem is, the advertisements, as a group are not as persuasive as all advertising," he said. 'It stops and gets people's attention, but they generally don't go further and get any kind of motivation of interest in the product itself."
Previous marketing campaigns by Burger King have included its award-wining "Subservient Chicken" viral video, spots featuring "Whopper virgins" and most recently, an appearance by rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot and SpongeBob SquarePants. Other slogans previously used by the fast food giant include "Have It Your Way" and "It Takes Two Hands to Handle a Whopper."
"They've done some good stuff in terms of helping to break out of the stereotypical type of advertising you often see, but occasionally they seem to go too far and other times they get it exactly right," Purvis said. "And that's what happens with edgy advertising — you just don't know where to draw the line."
Mark Crispin Miller, a professor of media studies at New York University and author of a forthcoming book on the marketing campaign behind the "Marlboro Man," said the ad reeked of a "certain desperation" just to make an impression.
"This is really straining to be dirty," Miller told FOXNews.com. "This is objectionable because it's outrageously exaggerating the pleasure of Burger King. It's not that good, even as food, and therefore nowhere near as gratifying as an orgasm. There's no doubt they intended a double entrendre."
Pilgrim
In many ways this is too ridiculous for comments: I would argue that for this ad to ever be considered a double entendre, one would have to prove to me that it was not purely about oral sex.
1On the other hand, the woman who calls it misogynistic is a hoot. If it were, then all it would take to establish almost universal misogyny would be to tap the undercurrents of the male libido. In fact I think this has nothing to do with misogyny but everything to do with bad taste... and that's a pun on at least three levels which was intended.
Um, why doesn't Burger King just try putting out a commercial that does NOT cause controversy? Unless any publicity is good publicity?
2I don't get these "sexy burger" commercials. I mean there is nothing sexy about it, no matter how it is shot. Gratuitous Sex is for people with no imagination and lack substance. I dislike it is movies and television as well.
Absolute power, corrupts absolutely.
3At the risk of offending someone, I suggest that it is the lack of imagination (or perhaps having exhausted it during the workday) which keeps fast food places in business. We all ought to agree that fast food lacks substance. The latest one which has bombarded us is Wendy's insistence that it is NOT fast food.
Michael Jackson wasn't a perv either.
4The food does lack substance but you would think with the amount of money that they pull in that they could be a bit more creative.
Absolute power, corrupts absolutely.
5it's an OK ad if you're targeting desperate perverts. Otherwise, I prefer BK concentrate on making better commercials and food.
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have".
6Thomas Jefferson
This is a demonstration of how creativity goes awry at the expense of the bottom line.
I saw a hamburger add last night on TV....
.... scrawny sun-tanned bikini-clad girl squirming in the sand while saying "I give up everything to have this body, everything except this Big Juicy Teriyaki Burger" all the while squirming like the hamburger was going to give her a "oh yeah" moment....
.....and the entire time she held the burger all I could think was her throwing it up as soon as she could after the filming was done. Reality. Do advertising people think we are that dumb? Obviously the people they use in a "control group" to test those ideas are drunk college students AND they probably had to give them free hamburgers.
7Cheeky, I also hate that ad!
8I think it's from Carl's Jr., who is known for their blatantly and offensively sexy ads.
They did one a couple of years ago involving Paris Hilton washing a car, IIRC, and have also (more recently) used Padma Lakshmi. (There's another one I dislike: someone who lucked into a modeling career and used it to get a high-profile marriage in an attempt to springboard herself to legitimacy. No, thanks.)
===================================
Conservative in exile
Washington and Sacramento: Stealing our children's futures.
A lot of television commercials these days are distasteful in my opinion. They all seem to think their advertising has to have some sort of sexual content or suggestion of it, in order for them to sell their product. It actually makes me not want to buy from people like that.
9I'm... too sexy for my burger.... too sexy for my burger....
Laine, I was going to mention the Hilton burger orgy. This all reminds me of that Creed song, Signs:
"This is not about race
It's a decision to stop the division in your life
This is not about sex
We all know sex sells and the whole world is buying
We're buyin', yeah"
'Nuff said.
10~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." Thomas Jefferson
Post A Comment
To post comments, please log in or register.