For those of you who may not know, World Peace Day is coming up on September 21st. If you’re like me the mere mention of world peace makes you think of one of those graphics of little people circling the earth holding hands, not a burger. However, this year for World Peace Day, Burger King has proposed that they come together with McDonalds to create the McWhopper: a collaboration of both McDonald’s Big Mac and Burger King’s Whopper.
In addition to taking out a full-page as in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, BK created an interactive website that details their proposal to McDonalds, and it’s quite impressive! As you scroll down the webpage you will see everything from the pop-up restaurant sketches to the recipe for the monster burger. The letter to McDonalds, which takes a humorous approach, begins with “Good morning McDonalds, we come in peace” and closes with “Lets end the beef, with beef”. As you continue to scroll down the page and watch both burger’s ingredients follow you down the page, you come to a short video with details explaining that just like BK “McDonalds is committed to leveraging size, scope, and resources to help make the world a better place.” The video also features some bloke, who apparently founded Peace One Day, talking about the proposal.
The coolest part of the idea is the creative execution pieces shown on the website. The pop-up restaurant would be located in Atlanta, the halfway point between McD’s headquarters in Chicago and BK’s Headquarters in Miami. According to the website, in this neutral territory “McDonald’s and Burger King staff can come together to prepare, package, and serve our limited edition burger.” The design concepts for the burger box, napkins, and uniforms equally represent the two companies, with the design colors and theme split diagonally. On one side of the products we have McD’s red color and signature yellow archs (the symbol of hope and happiness for all French fry lovers like myself), and on the other side we have Burger King’s lovely brown on brown color combo. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m more of a McDonalds girl. Why? MCDONALDS FRIES ARE THE HOLY GRAIL OF FRIES.
The McWhopper recipe claims to use an equal number of ingredients from each of the signature burgers, however, the Whopper part of the burger on the bottom looks significantly bigger. Coincidence? I think not. Remember, BK is the one reaching out to McDonalds here. I’m that boring person who will only eat a plain cheeseburger, so I didn’t even know what the differences between a Big Mac and a Whopper were until looking into it. Let me break it down for you. The McD Big Mac consists of an all-beef patty, cheese, lettuce, special sauce, and a middle bun. The BK Whopper has tomato, onion, ketchup, pickles, and a flame-grilled patty.
Now for the good stuff! What was McDonald’s response to the McWhopper burger truce proposal? McDonalds was not interested in “settling the beef, with beef”. McDonald’s’ CEO, Steve Easterbrook, posted to Facebook saying “We love the intention but think our two brands could do something bigger to make a difference.” The post then went on to basically say that there is no beef between them, but a friendly business competition that shouldn’t be compared to the real suffering of war. What really gets me about the response post is the “P.S. A simple phone call will do next time.” Ouch. Although that part makes me snicker, I don’t like that it belittles the creative environment BK fostered. Clearly a lot of work and creativity went into the proposal, website creation, and design execution that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Naturally, many people turned to Facebook and Twitter to express their disappointment in McDonalds. Posts regarding the matter include comments such as “what a shame, wow McDonalds you’ve saddened me, I’ll choose the crown over the clown any day”, and my personal favorite “once again McDonald’s messes up just like my order last night.” It’s apparent that people are more upset about the way McDonald’s CEO responded rather than their decision not to participate.
Less then a week later, Denny’s took out a full-page ad in USA Today claiming they wanted to join forces with Burger King for a combination burger. The “Slopper” (yes, you read that correctly) would be the marriage of Denny’s Slam Burger with BK’s Whopper resulting in some kind of breakfast burger. As of now Burger King hasn’t responded to Denny’s offer, but I think we can all agree burgers and breakfast should be kept separate.