To quote Burger King, noted purveyor of affordable edible items and recent Wendy's trolling target, "the beauty of real food is that it gets ugly."
And ugly, most assuredly, is a central element in the brand's new marketing push. Announced early Wednesday, the new global campaign includes footage of a mold-covered Whopper and is part of the brand’s push for zero artificial preservatives in the sandwich.
The company, per a press release, has removed all artificial preservatives from the sandwich in the bulk of European countries and in select United States markets. Furthermore, colors and flavors from artificial sources have been ditched from all "core menu sandwiches and sides" in those same markets.
"The Burger King brand is currently rolling out the Whopper® sandwich with no preservatives, colors, or flavors from artificial sources in the U.S.," President of BK's North America happenings, Christopher Finazzo, said Wednesday of the INGO Stockholm & DAVID Miami-produced campaign. "The product is already available in more than 400 restaurants in the country and will reach all restaurants throughout the year."
As it stands now, more than 90 percent of all ingredients used in Burger King restaurants in the U.S. are said to be free of colors, flavors, and preservatives derived from artificial sources.
The video portion of BK's latest marketing journey is heavy on the mold, notably showing off a burger as it wages war with the sands of time in downright cinematic fashion. (Say what you will about going full-mold for an ad campaign, but you’d be hard-pressed to see the same from, say, McDonald’s.) Naturally, such a move has garnered a great deal of reactions, which you can sample below as if they too were a meal of sorts:
