The United Nations has promoted September 21 as global Peace Day since 1981, and Burger King said its move was part of a campaign by an activist coalition, Peace One Day, to make it a day of ceasefire, non-violence and global unity.
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“All we need from you is a few McDonald’s crew members to help combine your ingredients with ours”, said Burger King in its ad.
In full-page newspaper ads Wednesday, Burger King says it’s calling for a truce with McDonald’s so that they can create a mashup of their most famous burgers – the Big Mac and the Whopper.
Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s’ fantastically tedious CEO, isn’t keen on the idea, and posted a message on Facebook.
“Let’s make history and generate a lot of noise around Peace Day”.
It’s not completely clear what the fund-raising aims (if any) of the pop-up store would be. Burger King said it was an attempt to set aside the burger wars for one day, for a good cause. “Corporate activism on this scale creates mass awareness and awareness creates action and action saves lives”, he said.
Fast food fans waited in suspense for McDonald’s response, hoping the burger of their dreams would finally come to fruition.
The Whopper, which Burger King refers to as “America’s favorite burger”, is a quarter pound (pre-cooked patty weight) of “savory flame-grilled beef” with tomatoes, lettuce, mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles and sliced onions on a sesame seed bun. The social media reaction to the reaction hasn’t been positive at all – even on McDonald’s own Facebook page – giving Burger King the win in this non-battle battle. For this effort, it boldly appropriated McDonald’s logos, colors and other trade dress but shyly tries to cover its bases with an acknowledgment on every piece of creative: “McDonald’s Corporation has not yet authorized this usage or accepted this proposal”. Besides, wouldn’t Burger King prefer to partner with a fresh and innovative brand that is on the rise? And… it probably never will.
Or perhaps from an alternative Burger King point of view: as a cynical attempt to prove McDonald’s is a cold multinational company with no interest in promoting a peaceful coexistence in any form.
Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land.
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Pamela Parker is Executive Features Editor at Search Engine Land and Marketing Land.
