© Deb Cram / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images / Burger King
At its recent annual franchise convention, Burger King came clean on why the fast food giant ditched the ‘Creepy King’ mascot that became a staple of the brand for years.
The Creepy King was a marketing fixture for Burger King from 2004 through 2011 before being retired. It has since made a few reappearances since 2015 and thanks to a report from RBO we now know why the Creepy King was put out to pasture: it freaked out kids and sent families in droves flocking to McDonald’s.
Burger King’s Creepy King Was Off Putting To Families Who Turned To Happy Meals
The Chief Marketing Officer for Burger King, Joel Yashinsky, who joined the company in April of this year after leaving Applebee’s but who had previously worked at McDonald’s for 17 years knew firsthand how much BK’s competitor benefited from the Creepy King Mascot.
At the conference, he said “there were a number of learnings we had from creepy king. And we’ve moved away from creepy king because he had limited appeal.”
Before we get to the rest though… How is this weird?!
…What they found specifically was the King mascot was off putting to children. That in turn sent families to McDonald’s, BK’s #1 competitor and the largest fast food chain in the world.
Years later, BK is now discovering that they can tap into kid’s meals paired with toys and are able to undo the weird association with the ‘Creepy King’ that drove families away.
Similarly, their #2 target demographic after families are young men. They have started rolling out combos/deals targeted specifically at young men who want cheap burgers and are typically less discerning with what they order.
I’m still hung up on how kids didn’t see this and immediately think ‘yup, I want that burger over McNuggets’ because every parent knows kids LOVE burgers and aren’t at all weird about the texture of meat + bread and that they always prefer that over McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets, which may or may not be the most popular kids food on planet earth…
Speaking personally, I’d like to see Burger King introduce something I can eat on road trips that won’t hit my stomach like a semi-truck.
Chick-fil-a has their grilled nuggets which offer great macros on road trips, high in protein and low in calories. Other fast food chains fail to recognize how important that is for a large segment of society.