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Burger King keeps pushing the envelope. With work that\u2019s refreshing, provocative and often very risky, BK is succeeding in carving out a distinctive brand with a personality that couldn\u2019t be more different than arch rival (pun intended) McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Their latest effort focuses on two of my favorite topics, food and mental health. Sometimes these subjects are completely unrelated, but quite frequently they are intertwined. I\u2019ve written many blogs on both subjects, individually<\/a><\/span> and together.<\/p>\n I thought that Weight Watchers got it completely right a few years back with a campaign that tied the problem of overeating <\/a>directly<\/a> to emotion<\/a><\/span>. A 60-second spot showed that virtually any situation, happy, sad and everything in between, provided an excuse to eat \u2013 and over-eat.<\/p>\n That the campaign flopped does not mean that the observation wasn\u2019t valid. I thought it was brilliant. But the ad\u2019s realistic, \u201cshock of recognition\u201d proved to be off-putting, not inspiring. The same fate might await Burger King’s latest effort, “Real Meals.” In partnership with Mental Health America, the promotion, limited to five major markets, aims at raising awareness for Mental Health Awareness Month in May.<\/p>\n Order a Whopper Meal, and you can choose to get it in the box of your choice to match your mood. Options include the Pissed Meal, Blue Meal, Salty Meal, YAAAS Meal and DGAF Meal. (If you\u2019re over 50 or just out of it, visit the Urban Dictionary<\/a> <\/span>for translations of DGAF and YAAAS.)<\/p>\n As Adweek reports<\/span>,<\/a> \u201cFor reasons that should be obvious, \u201cHappy\u201d is not option.\u201d Because no one is happy all the time and no meal, in and of itself, will make you happy. Unless it\u2019s laced with cannabis, I suppose.<\/p>\n Burger King had ad agency MullenLowe U.S. create a short video called #FeelYourWay<\/a>.<\/span> It’s a real downer. Sampling the tune from the classic \u201cHave It Your Way\u201d campaign, we hear the stories of several people in despair. A teenager is being bullied at her high school. A guy gets ghosted by his girlfriend. A young adult wonders if he\u2019ll ever move out of his parents\u2019 house. A teen mom is crushed by a world that tells here she\u2019s too young to take care of her baby. \u00a0Sometimes there\u2019s a glimmer of hope at the end of their stories, but mostly not.<\/p>\n The video is a big a downer, but that\u2019s the entire point. BK tells us that \u201cNo one is happy all the time. And that\u2019s OK.\u201d After unburdening their sorrows on us, the characters sing, \u201cAll I ask is that you let me feel my way.\u201d<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a \u201cCoke and a Smile.\u201d It\u2019s not a day at Disneyland where all families are perfect and love each other unconditionally. It\u2019s not the promise of creativity and coolness when you buy an Apple product. This is real life.<\/p>\n Why would a company want to portray anything other than total bliss as the inevitable result of buying its products?<\/p>\n In marketing, we always talk about \u201cfeeling our customers\u2019 pain,\u201d and that’s\u2019 exactly BK is trying to do. It\u2019s a public service, or at least a nod in that direction (more on that later), but these highly relatable slices of life that demonstrate that you’re not alone if you’re not happy is also great brand strategy.\u00a0 It tells us that BK is authentic and sincere. That BK gets it. If you\u2019re down, they are not promising that you’ll walk out of the restaurant happy, even if your Whopper and fries just hit the spot. Magic is not on the menu today but we understanding is always available.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a nice bite-sized piece of sound mental health advice. We don\u2019t want to obsess over our pain. But we have to acknowledge it, accept it, and work our way through to the other side.<\/p>\n Will the effort suffer the same fate as the aforementioned Weight Watchers campaign? The insights and strategies behind both efforts are sharp. But there are big problems in execution. Both try to tackle big, complex issues that are hard to address in one or two minutes of video.\u00a0 Accordingly, the executions are more conceptual than typical marketing efforts, communicating types of negative emotions you generally don’t see in marketing. And then there’s the question of BK’s sincerity.<\/p>\n Will “Real Meals” be perceived as authentically motivated or a stunt? Will the effort be taken seriously?<\/p>\n Apparently not. The backlash on social media started right away. The L.A. Times<\/span><\/a> reports:<\/p>\n