BURGER BRIEF - INITIAL CONCEPTS

"A plant based burger that isn't vegan..."

For our first brief introducing us back into university life - Yes, the life is extremely different due to Covid...Face masks, fear and no social life, (but the show must go on!) We were introduced to a Burger King plant based burger called the 'Rebel Whopper' which is a plant based remake of the original 'Whopper'. At first I presumed that they wanted to make a vegan plant based burger to entice the growing market of veggies or vegans to Burger King - As this fast food chain is known for well, nothing to do with Vegetarianism/Veganism etc. However, through closer inspection, it isn't actually vegan, Burger King cannot say it is due to the 'Rebel Whopper' being cooked on the same grill as all the other meat burgers that they sell.

This was interesting as the idea of the Rebel Whopper being used to grasp Vegan's attention was written off - This was not the purpose of this burger, the purpose was to try and get regular meat eaters trying a plant based product as this has many benefits such as it being better for the environment and health wise to individuals, as well, it was also used to counter McDonalds 'Veggie deluxe' burger which is relatively new to the market.

Burger King decided to advertise the Rebel Whopper as 'It is the exact same as a Whopper', so they placed each of the burgers next to each other with a narrator explaining the ingredients only one was the plant based burger... Thrilling I know. I thought the campaign was pretty mediocre at best, in fact it was rather confusing as it is plant based? But not vegan? However I do see what they are trying to do, trying to entice meat eaters to try a plant based burger could be a really big market and very lucrative for Burger King as, what if the meat eaters like it? They are going to be queueing round the block to get their plant based burger fix.

"Unlock the rebel inside you!"

"The rebel's need you!"

"Unleash the rebel inside!"

This concept is all about the inner rebel, the inner protester and the inner 'hippie' that is inside of us all. In this time in our lives where we are seeing huge civil unrest in many areas of globe and in different communities, it is imperative to stand up for the right thing and push towards a better future. The ideology behind my concept is, who is a rebel? Who is a hippie in this day and age? Am I a hippie for caring about the environment? Is my friend a hippie for fighting inequalities? Or are we all hippies deep down?

Now, the word hippie is difficult for me to write because it doesn't sum up what I am trying to say perfectly - Hippie has too many negative connotations meaning it doesn't make people want to buy into it and say 'I am a hippie and proud'. As this is very early days in the concepts life, I can admit I don't have a concrete name, however, the meaning behind it is strong - The idea that we all want what is right, whether we protest in the streets of London or donate to specific charities to battle a social/economical/geographical problem, we try to do as much as we can - Hey, even recycling is a type of environmental preservation.

Eye catching right? The reason I keep referring to 'hippies' is because the 60s hippies movement is so iconic regards to the imagery that it carries. Peace, love and psychedelic drugs created a social movement that no one can ignore.

I want to implement the psychedelia aesthetic into the marketing and advertising of this campaign as it is just so eye catching - Imagine receiving this box, you would end up forgetting about the burger and end up starring at the design for hours instead.

Now imagine if you scan the box and it becomes an AR psychedelic world taking you away from the Burger King and into an exciting festival 'trip'... Where is this? How can I get this? I want one now. More on this to come when this concept is developed further.

On a more serious note, the other reason I wanted to create different versions of packaging for the Rebel Whopper is to implement a 'Choose the packaging, choose a charity' Scheme where the customer will have a choice of three packaging representing a specific charity, then, Burger King will donate a percentage of the profits to each charity depending on what the customers pick. Research suggests that this creates great conversation with the customers and business resulting in bigger interactions, emotive behaviour towards the business and higher sales of products - Which are all very beneficial for a campaign like this.

Remember, this all comes from the customer buying the burger... Which is what we want, we want customers buying it, after they've bought the burger they then get rewarded.

"Trippy burger bro!"

I wanted to create a moodboard which illustrates the power of the aesthetic that I am going for. The colour, the depth, the warmth as well as the absolute craziness can make this entire project so interesting and unique.

Imagine, you have just scanned your burger box and the entire room is covered in this liquified visual. Accompanied by distorted sonics and iconic songs, this could really be an experience to remember. JUST FROM ORDERING A BURGER?!

To round this initial concept blog up, I wanted to show my idea for an advert, advertising the burger and the campaign together.

Picture this: A 60s city scape, slowing going towards it from a birds eye view

We see a large sea of protesters going down the street

We get closer, the camera pans in

It goes to a side view of the protester crowd, slowly going lower

There is a gap in the crowd

What do we see?

There it is, the Burger King VW rebel whopper truck.

"We were there then and we are here now."

"Fuelling the protesters since 1961."

I feel like that could be a really strong campaign that if done right, filmed beautifully, it could be an excellent watch. Coming from this, a good marketing tool could be to collaborate with VW to manufacture these VW burger cans especially for Burger King, which can then be driven around, placed in city centres and festivals etc.