It is so rare that in a marketing relationship I can be so proud of one side, while so loathsome of the other, at the same time. Yet my perennial favourite advertisers, Burger King (with CP+B at the helm) have managed to do just that, with everyone's favourite gold digger, Heather Mills.Apparently Mills has decided to spread the good word about BK's new veggie burger...and in her infinite kindness, is only taking a $4 million commission...awwww.
From a marketing standpoint, this is brilliant once again on Burger King's part, as this has already made a ton of buzz in the news, and even if Mills is a PR disaster without a leg to stand on (I'm sorry, I just had to), BK still benefits from getting the word out. McDonald's has struggled for years to move their vegetarian products, especially burgers, so any market advantage will help. But from a moral standpoint, Linda McCartney must be spinning in her grave over this.
Mills is, keep in mind, marketing a veggie burger for the burger chain that actually keeps a serious face on about selling a 4-patty burger, stuffed with only bacon and cheese in between. She is marketing for a company that represents a vegan nightmare, whether it is from just the mass consumption by its rotund customers, or the environmental disaster caused by BK and other chains like it, with their less-than-moral food processing methods. Even if the veggie burger sells a million units, the Whopper will still sell 10 million, and even Sir Paul himself cannot stop BK from ever selling meat products.
Some say (probably Mills herself) that even with a company like Burger King, this promotion will still be a benefit, as it may turn potential meat-eaters into vegetarians...what they seem to fail to realize is that (A) not only are you trying to turn a meat-eater in a goddamn BURGER KING, with odors of the sweet temptress of bacon and cheese surrounding the joint, but (B) you are doing so with a FAST FOOD VEGGIE BURGER...while I am no culinary expert, they quite frequently taste like shit. If you are going to turn a meatie into a veggie, do it with taste (literally).
With the extra PR going BK's way aside, this just seems so wrong on so many levels. Mills is supporting a veggie burger nobody will buy, from a company contributing so much to the McDonaldization (ironic, I know) of society, agriculture and the environment, and taking a $4 million pay cut to boot.
Media mongering - that's where Heather's a viking!
(MAR. 24 UPDATE: So Heather's manager said she has not signed this contract after all...however, they said that Mills "would love to get vegan burgers or any vegan food out there via any avenue possible and Burger King would be a great place to begin." So I still stand by what I said. Byaaah!)
2 comments:
I love that you had to take back some of your stand. I also don't remember Mc D's ever selling a veggie burger? Not that I eat there, but as a vegetarian, I had not heard. I did hear that KFC was doing one (someone sent me a coupon by email.)
On the same note, anyone who is a true vegetarian wouldn't go near one of these things as it is probably cooked on the same grill, doused in the same animal fats from the burger/bacon/mystery meat that cooked there before it.
exactly, i figure as much...that's what makes it so dumb to try to appeal to devout vegetarians in the first place, and especially dumb for someone like Heather Mills (or any so-called vegan, for that matter) to endorse a veggie burger from any place like BK.
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