Every PR team, at some point, has tried to tie a client to a national holiday to garner media coverage. From National Chicken Wing Day to National Grandparents Day, brands around the country default to offering up freebies for easy media hits. (Here’s where I insert my shameless plug for our client, Dunkin’ Donuts South Florida; National Coffee Day is Sept. 29!)
But when I read about Burger King’s hilarious stunt for International Peace Day in September, I thought, “Now that’s national holiday PR done right.” Essentially, Burger King, via full-page ads in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, called for a “ceasefire on these so-called ‘burger wars’” and proposed creating the McWhopper — half Big Mac, half Whopper. The microsite McWhopper.com explains it all, down to the nitty-gritty logistics like meeting in Atlanta (halfway between Chicago and Miami, headquarters for McDonald’s and Burger King, respectively) to build a pop-up restaurant featuring the McWhopper packaged in a co-branded box and served by employees in specially-made uniforms.
I’m lovin’ it.
Sadly, McDonald’s denied its competitor’s proposal in a somewhat passive-aggressive manner. Womp. But then Denny’s, Krystal, Wayback Burgers and Giraffas all raised their hands to create the Peace Day Burger. (Read more from Adweek.)
The McWhopper proposal is a great PR campaign that certainly didn’t come cheap, but got the brand significant media coverage. It certainly raises the bar for the rest of us tasked with conceiving the next “big idea” to land our clients in the news.
