Burger King guy TV commercials

[SuperJerk]

I will mention that BK's "Herb" campaign of the mid-80's was one of the more spectacular flops in advertising history.

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Yeah, what was the point of that? He was the only man in America who'd never eaten a Whopper? Kind of a ridicules claim considering the whole point of advertising the product is to get people to eat it who've never tried one before. Then when they found Herb, and he ate the sandwich, we were supposed to believe EVERYONE had tried a Whopper. That's going to sell sandwiches HOW? As if someone in the audience was thinking "Man, everyone in America's eaten at Burger King at some point...even me. Even though I don't remember ever eating there, I should eat there." I just don't get it.

[Darthtiki]

Question, where's the beef?

[kkktookmybabyaway]

Wow, I don't remember the Herb campaign.

 

I liked the time when BK tried to go gourmet with those hippie shrimp baskets, etc...

[Guest MikeSC]

The "Herb" campaign, in a nutshell:

 

BK put up posters in their stores looking for "Herb", the "only person" who had never eaten a Whopper.

 

Initially, they wanted people to figure out who it was themselves (without providing ANY clue what he looked like, etc.) for a prize of $5,000. This, of course, led to some customers simply accosting and irritating random people in line or people working at BK with the question "Are you Herb?"

 

BK then decided to end the whole prize part of this --- largely because people were getting irritated by the idiocy --- and introduced him during SB XX. They then plastered Herb's face and name on merchandise everywhere. And if you recognized Herb at your local BK, you won some prize.

 

Which kinda made building up Herb as a massive nerd a bit of a self-defeating prophecy, since he was now their mascot. It also made people wonder why a guy who hated Whoppers hung out at BK all of the time.

 

Business dropped like a rock during the campaign (supposed to go a year, pulled after 4 months) and this campaign that generated a loss of business only cost BK $40M.

[Dangerous A]

The Burger King > All of you

 

 

That is all.

[SuperJerk]

The "Herb" campaign, in a nutshell:

 

BK put up posters in their stores looking for "Herb", the "only person" who had never eaten a Whopper.

 

Initially, they wanted people to figure out who it was themselves (without providing ANY clue what he looked like, etc.) for a prize of $5,000. This, of course, led to some customers simply accosting and irritating random people in line or people working at BK with the question "Are you Herb?"

 

BK then decided to end the whole prize part of this --- largely because people were getting irritated by the idiocy --- and introduced him during SB XX. They then plastered Herb's face and name on merchandise everywhere. And if you recognized Herb at your local BK, you won some prize.

 

Which kinda made building up Herb as a massive nerd a bit of a self-defeating prophecy, since he was now their mascot. It also made people wonder why a guy who hated Whoppers hung out at BK all of the time.

 

Business dropped like a rock during the campaign (supposed to go a year, pulled after 4 months) and this campaign that generated a loss of business only cost BK $40M.

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Who were the advertising executives who came up with that one?[/stand-up mode]

[Darthtiki]

We could do a thread of advertising bombs

[DMann2003]

Watching some old SNME/Monday Night RAW's had some pretty funny BK commercials-

 

Remmember Dan Cortese?

[Guest MikeSC]

I do now.

 

All of those years of therapy...gone.

[SuperJerk]

Watching some old SNME/Monday Night RAW's had some pretty funny BK commercials-

 

Remmember Dan Cortese?

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He later had a short-lived sitcom on UPN they'd advertise the hell out of during Smackdown.

[The Czech Republic]

AVOID THE NOID

[Darthtiki]

He later had a short-lived sitcom on UPN they'd advertise the hell out of during Smackdown.

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Yeah but the girl on that show was hot

[kkktookmybabyaway]

AVOID THE NOID

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Don't be hating the Noid...

[Black Lushus]

anyone ever play that Noid game by Capcom on the NES?

[Guest MikeSC]

It was annoying.

 

Screw the pun, it was a bad game.

[Black Lushus]

I couldn't get very far in it...

[SuperJerk]

The worst thing about the Noid was that there was nothing about him that tied him to the product he was being used to sell.

 

Was it Domino's Pizza?

[Guest The King]

I'm so glad to see so many of you are fans of my work. Try the new Meatnormous Breakfast sandwich, its meat, on top of meat, on top of meat. It's Meatnormous.

[kkktookmybabyaway]

Sounds like the caption to a gay porno movie.

 

Not that I would know, mind you.

 

And not like there's anything wrong with that, either.

 

(Christ, King's post count is already at 13 -- can't wait to see where else this poster has spread...)

[Black Lushus]

The worst thing about the Noid was that there was nothing about him that tied him to the product he was being used to sell. 

 

Was it Domino's Pizza?

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aye

[haws bah gawd]

Anyone picked up some of the Turbo BK Joe yet? This is the most caffeine-loaded coffee I've ever had. I'm trying to sit still in my database class right now, and I feel like I need to stand up and run a mile.

[Special K]

We could do a thread of advertising bombs

 

Great Idea.

 

What was the point of all the 1-800 collect call ads a few years ago? They would hire celebrities that are widely derided (Carrottop, David Arquette) and have them just be hyperactive and annoying. Is there some kind of ad philosophy that thinks that annoying commercials will stick in consumers' brains? I never buy a product because it has a hip ad compaign. (I think movie ads are the only thing that may cause me to rush out and 'buy' the product), but I am petty enough that an ad campaign I actively hate will cause me to avoid the product/company like the plague.

Fuck, thinking about those commercials, how were they even economically feasible? They were on every station at every commercial break, and how many collect calls are made a day?

[kkktookmybabyaway]

I guess people make a lot of collect calls.

 

I thought the 1-800-collect and 1-800-dial-ATT (or whatever it was) were funny.

 

And who was that dark-haired chick in the Collect commercials?...

[The Czech Republic]

I'm so glad to see so many of you are fans of my work.  Try the new Meatnormous Breakfast sandwich, its meat, on top of meat, on top of meat.  It's Meatnormous.

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This gimmick is being poorly executed. For optimal performance, you should just post a picture of The King with the big creepy grin, since he doesn't talk. Surrender your password to me in a PM in the next 24 hours so I may correctly perform these duties.

[The Mandarin]

Yeah. You did a great job with sticking to the Sylvan Grenier gimmick, Czech.

[The Czech Republic]

That was mostly nikjohns's fault.

[Slayer]

And who was that dark-haired chick in the Collect commercials?...

Alyssa Milano?

[Vyce]

I will say that you could write a book on horrible ad campaigns and use nothing but previous BK ad campaigns as examples and do quite well with it.

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No, you have to include the Quizno's evil singing marmacets in that.

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The Sponge Monkeys? You dare speak ill of them? They're goddamn fantastic.

 

Although in retrospect, perhaps not the best mascots to use if you're trying to sell a food product.

[DrVenkman PhD]

Avoid the Noid, he ruins pizzas.

 

"The advertising campaign featuring the Noid (an animation by Will Vinton Studios) allegedly caused Georgia man Kenneth Noid to hold hostage two employees of the Domino's chain for five hours. Noid was charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, extortion and possession of a firearm during a crime."

[Guest *KNK*]

I will say that you could write a book on horrible ad campaigns and use nothing but previous BK ad campaigns as examples and do quite well with it.

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No, you have to include the Quizno's evil singing marmacets in that.

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The Sponge Monkeys? You dare speak ill of them? They're goddamn fantastic.

 

Although in retrospect, perhaps not the best mascots to use if you're trying to sell a food product.

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Not true, I never heard of Quizno's until I saw those commericals, which made me look for one 35 miles away. Luckily, since then 10 Quizno's have opened within quick driving range for me.