Page 81 - E&B_septemvri 2015 ENG.indd

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
the documentary about one of his biggest missions
in Afghanistan is Jude Law. POD achieved success in
2001 when the UN officially declared September 21
a World Peace Day, urging all warring parties in the
world to halt their military operations on this day
and thus give peace a chance. Among other activities, This communication gambit is carefully designed
one of the primary missions of the POD is to elevate
the Day of Peace, September 21, in a self-sustainable authenticity and sincerity of Burger King and still
communication project, whose promotion would
involve other non-governmental organizations,
countries and of course the big companies that
would find commercial interest in it. To that end,
this year they launched the campaign „Who will you
make peace with on September 21“, while trying to
attract as greater involvement of other marketers
and advertisers, and thus indirectly ensure greater
promotion of the Day of Peace.
„Let‘s settle the beef with beef“ is the slogan
that Burger King released in public less than one
month before the Day of Peace, with a proposal
to McDonald‘s in which they call their rival in
a guerrilla campaign in the interest of peace,
according to the call of the POD - „Who will you
make peace with on September 21.“ Their proposal is
basically a merger of their strongest brands Big Mac
and Whopper, into the new product, McWhopper.
Burger King elaborates the proposal in detail, so
they propose opening of a special, prefab shop on
21 September, in the city of Atlanta, a city that is
symbolically located halfway between the cities
of Chicago and Miami, which are the seats of the
two companies. They even start a special website
McWhopper.com, where they present in detail the
proposals and rebranding of the store, packaging
and clothing of personnel, which are in the spirit
of the joint venture. The proposal developed in
detail also the recipe of the new product (sandwich
McWhopper) that would authentically preserve the
particularities of both the Big Mac and the Whopper.
down to the smallest detail in order to preserve the
provide communication advantage relative to the
competition. The answer of McDonald‘s, in which
they carefully reject this proposal came the next
day through their official Facebook and Twitter
accounts, but that did not stop the avalanche of
public reactions that this proposal caused, which
was certainly one of the main goals of Burger King.
After the first shock, and numerous emotional
reactions of the public, a number of PR experts
carefully analyzed the details, that in this political
communication strategy, are the main source for
the drawing of conclusions.
I must admit that Burger King‘s „McWhopper“
campaign, though brave and rebellious, is very
skillfully and carefully crafted, even for my taste. In
all details, they were careful about the main pitfall
in the preparation of such communication gambits,
and that is to act honestly enough , so as not to
turn the altruistic component into a lucrative one.
In fact, before they launched this campaign they
carefully analyzed (or created) the POD call for
involvement of the business sector in promoting the
Day of Peace, and most importantly, they ensured
public support by the founder of POD, Jeremy Gilley,
who in the promotional video personally asks
McDonald‘s to respond positively to the proposal
September 2015 81