Communication Strategy In Advertising Example Burger King

Let me show you the one Cannes Lion Grand Prix winner that has the strategy community split, it all comes down to how you think advertising works. My name is Julian Cole, a strategy trainer at Strategy Finishing School.

In this video I’ll be showing you the most controversial Cannes Lion Grand Prix Winner and the two prominent schools of thought for how advertising works.

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ABOUT ME: I’m Julian Cole, a strategy trainer at the Strategy Finishing School. I’m also a strategy consultant to leading brands like Uber, Disney, Facebook, Apple and Snap. Previously I was head of comms planning at BBH and BBDO New York where my team and I won over 100+ creative and strategy awards.

[streetie]

I do tend to subscribe to the ANT much more than AIDA. Having said that, I think it misses one vital thing: What do the Associations *Mean*? What context do these Associations exist within? That is the realm of Semiotics.

In this case, the associations exist within the larger notion in culture around chemical preservatives and in that context Mold = Preservative Free (in semiotic terms, Mold is the signifier of lack of preservatives).

Semiotically speaking, this ad underlines that Whopper behaves the same way people KNOW food in their kitchen to behave. “Good food goes Bad”.

Would be great to know how the Brand Imagery statements around ‘Fresh’ and ‘Preservative Free’ moved after the campaign. That would be the real test.

[karelkumar]

Great video Julian, I think this video is only this powerful because it follows in the footsteps of those viral videos of McDonald's burgers never decaying - as referenced in the case study video. It would still be a great ad, but there's an extra hidden dig at McDonald's here as anyone who would have seen those videos or seen that story would immediately think back to that, as we all know about the rivalry between these two brands.

[apurvasinghai]

I asked my friends and they told that they totally get their point that we don't have preservatives and that's why it rots like real food unlike the one with preservatives that is mould free. When I asked them whether the sight of mould makes it yuck; they said we are smart enough to understand that just because they show, it doesn't mean they going to serve it with mould. They called it a creative way to drive their point that "we are natural" in a very memorable way.

[MarcinKalkhoff]

People are not stupid. Even when there is a direct association whooper - mold, the intellectual process drives to "its natural" thought. Why? - just because they know it is advertising that always shows products positively. When they see something disgusting they just look for story behind. So most of problem solving process runs in people minds, which is the best for advertising. This i's why this idea is simply brilliant.

[JoBromilow]

Despite the extremely strong and clear insight behind it, I always felt it was very much an ad for advertisers. Personally as a consumer I think I'm much more ANT than AIDA (and I think the role of social media in growing the ANT model can't be overlooked) and it's always quite hard to set aside one's initial reactions as a consumer to it.

[MarcoMoiso]

Are the AIDA and the ANT actually mutually exclusive?
People do make associations with brands (especially relevant for Routinised Response Behaviour purchases and Limited Problem Solving purchases) and People do go down consumer journeys (especially relevant for Extended Problem Solving purchases).
In this case, the campaign gets me to make an association with "conservatives-free" burgers not with mould - that is very relevant in the cultural context - hence I believe the campaign to be well steuctured.

[PanMateusz]

When I saw it for the first time, I thought that - however its bold and provocative and distinctive - it would build negative association (whooper - mould) while people do not analyze, they usually just see things. And that might reject from eating this stuff. But, maybe the insight about chemical, plastic food"is so strong, that desired takeout ("its normal food if its moldy) have a chance to break through to consciousness. The results looks pretty impressive.

[RefueRants]

Considering where the world is moving in terms of health, it was gross but landed with the sentiment around fast food. I think it had a very low chance of failure because it was great content - a conversation starter.

[helencorrella]

What is the name again? grand prime line ?

[ergoproxi]

I feel like I've been deeply polarised by the idea. As an ads prof with 20years in strategy I am applauding the idea. It sets a completely new approach to well-used mouth-watering demos with supernatural ingredients made up by a food-stylist. However as a consumer who goes for fast food sometime and who lives in a country where people are more concerned by quality of food brands in supermarkets than in international junk food chains (McDo's been blooming in Russia for the last 25 years) I didn't get the the message. Sorry, before you explained the idea itself I didn't understood it right. My fist idea was BK tells about food excess in developed countries or uses any other social agenda. I think the idea's power would be limited the most by a media / cultural context in which people live in.

[gavinjones]

To overcome the association negative, BK should have also time captured the leading competitor's decay, or lack of it. While BK would maintain the association of mold, the competitor would actually be more tainted by the frightening lack of decay and hence a greater unhealthy association. Unusual that BK didn't take its usual direct poke at their rival here. All that said, it's a PR-driving idea and it takes a brave client to buy it so it's worthy of awards acclaim but also associations often take years to build properly. Don't see VW having too hard a time after a whole emissions scandal versus a one-off stunt consumer have likely forgotten even if awards juries have not.