IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Burger King

  • Burger King’s Spooky Whopper

     Name three common fast-food restaurants in five seconds…. Go! Hopefully you came up with something along the lines of McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King. Since their creation, the trio have been constantly fighting for brand loyalty. In an effort to attract new consumers, each found ways of making their product unique. Recently, Burger King released the Halloween Whopper, a normal Whopper with a black, A.1 flavored bun.

    If you haveScreen shot 2015-10-28 at 9.54.51 PM Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or really any social media outlet, you probably experienced Burger King’s presence on social media. Before the launch of the Halloween Whopper, Burger King teased their consumers with a promo video featuring thunder, lightning, and a lunar eclipse with a black bun burger placed front and center – stating “Something Wicked is Coming” on Twitter.


    As the Halloween Whopper was announced publicly, Burger King released this press release: “Burger King Restaurants Unveil the A.1 Halloween Whopper Sandwich with A.1 Flavor Baked into the Black Bun.” stating this whopper was inspired by Japan’s specialized burger. They followed up by saying “    We tailored the flavor of the black bun to the American palate with A.1. sauce, a flavor this country loves, and we’re delivering it in a way that’s never been done before by baking it into the bun. It may look Japanese but it tastes like America.” The hashtags of #HalloweenWhopper and #SomethingWickedIsComing filled Twitter and other mainstream social media outlets because of the non-traditional appearance.

    Screen shot 2015-10-29 at 11.01.47 AMPeople who were daring enough to try it- are daring enough to share the results with the Internet. Twitter comments are consistent in complaining of a green stool (which admittedly sounds very unpleasant). This green situation might make you wonder, “What people are willing to try without pausing to consider what’s going into their bodies?” Burger King hasn’t publicly released the ingredients or replied to the negative comments. Burger King seems to be choosing silence as their strategy in this crisis, but Charmin has taken a clever chance to chime in. Comments such as “whatever the color of your buns, we’ll keep them clean”, posting a link to the Buzzfeed article on the green poo crisis. Negative or positive press, Burger King is taking over social media, 29,000 tweets in a single week. 

    America’s detachment from our food has reached crisis level proportions. We don’t know what the ingredients in our food are, where they come from, who grows and or genetically modifies them. And it’s not without its consequences; as a nation, we are morbidly obese and chronically unhealthy. This way of living is becoming very expensive. Health care for weight-related issues puts a huge strain on the health-care system. 

    Burgers turning our poo green is a light-hearted example, but shines light on the heart of the issue. We honestly have no idea what’s in our food, or how it affects our health, and we really don’t seem to care. This example reaches the point that a halloween themed hamburger is turning poop green and people think it’s hilarious. The food we eat literally affects all the cells of our body. This concept of detachment is what Marx calls commodity fetishism. When a culture forgets, ignores, or is otherwise separated from the source of a commodity (in this instance where food comes from), the culture becomes wasteful and overuses, almost always at the disadvantage of those who create the given commodity, and in this case ourselves as well.

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    We implore anyone reading this to once a week, once a month even, get together with friends and family and cook a meal from scratch. Be grateful for every ingredient.

    Have you tried the #HalloweenWhopper yet? Let us know your thoughts on this controversial burger.

    -Jonathan Callahan, Erin Fouhy, Julia George, Joseph Hines, and Sarah Suggs

  • Athletes Support Obesity

    For those who tuned in to the one-sided beat down that was Super Bowl XLVIII, it is tough to look past Peyton Manning’s subpar performance throughout the entire game. For someone who had a record-breaking regular season, coming into the game with the #1 ranked offense in the league, he really failed to deliver.  At least his buddies at Papa Johns can still deliver, and hopefully in 15 minutes or less! Peyton Manning has proven himself to be a heavy endorser of Papa John’s, especially after purchasing 21 franchises in Colorado. Riddle me this, how is it that professional athletes are the best endorsers for unhealthy food choices, yet their physiques and life styles are not aligned with their sponsors? Maybe Peyton made the mistake of actually eating some of the delicious pizza before the big game. Let’s face it; a big greasy pizza is not an ideal pregame meal for any sort of competition. Not to mention how slippery it will leave your fingers (which may result in a few interceptions).

    Sponsorships are used in advertising to endorse products through the featured prolific person, whom would assume to be relatable to the product or service. Some people choose their products carefully, whereas others appear to care only about the personal gains. Many sponsorships prove to be for monetary gain when using unrelated people for products. For example, irony is apparent when an athlete endorses an unhealthy food service, such as Anderson Silva, a UFC middleweight champion. Although Anderson also sponsors athletic corporation NIKE, the UFC fighter is a well-known advocate for fast food chain Burger King.

    Just a little over a month ago, on one of the most eagerly awaited UFC rematches of all time, Anderson Silva entered the octagon with his Burger King logo stamped right on his thigh.  For those of you unfamiliar with Silva, he is widely regarded as the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. However, midway through the second round Silva finished himself by snapping his own shinbone over the side of Chris Weidman’s knee. The type of healthy life style decisions Silva makes in order to be best of the best does not accurately reflect his endorsement for Burger King.

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    Here the athlete presents himself with a fighting glove in one hand, and a triple burger with bacon in the other. Aside from the fact that the burger is full of some sort of protein, which athletes consume to gain muscle, the advertisement demonstrates a winning athlete endorsing an obvious unhealthy meal. This endorsement, like a few others is an ironic match with an arguably more ironic ending. Furthermore, a burger like such may be easily burned off by the strenuous activity and amount of energy exuded by a professional athlete. The everyday average Joe on the other hand, may only burn off the fries that came in the combo with the enormously sized burger. Professional athletes are then supporting and encouraging the very things that cause obesity within America, just not for their own bodies.

    The frequently shown fast food endorsements among some of the most popularly watched professional sports could be an indirect factor and influence of obesity within America right now. If Athletes supported the healthy alternatives instead, perhaps there would be a lesser percentile of overweight and obese diagnoses within the United States. Is fast-food sponsorship among professional athletes problematic, or would sales remain the same among the fast food industry because of the convenience?

    -Austin Johnson, Jade Lester, Jami Rogers, Ty Thomas