Y&R New Zealand helps Burger King launch global campaign to extend an olive branch to McDonald’s in honour of Peace Day – Sept 21
Burger King is calling for a ‘burger wars ceasefire’ with their longstanding rival McDonald’s, proposing that on Peace Day, 21st September, 2015, the two restaurants set aside their differences and join forces to cook and serve the ‘McWhopper’ – a peace-loving burger that combines all the tastiest ingredients from the McDonald’s Big Mac and the Burger King Whopper.
In keeping with the global and collaborative spirit of the campaign, Y&R New Zealand has worked with multiple agencies to make the proposal happen – NZ based production companies: Assembly, Fish, Liquid Studios and Resn alongside Burger King and its US & global partners ABPR, Code & Theory, DAVID, Horizon, Rock Orange and Turner Duckworth.
The McWhopper peace proposal launched today with a full-page ‘open letter’ from Burger King to McDonald’s appearing in the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. The letter extends a friendly, no-strings invitation to McDonald’s to participate in the project, and invites them to visit mcwhopper.com to view the full Burger King peace proposal and everything from packaging suggestions to recipe ideas.
Peace Day, 21st September, is a United Nations recognised annual day of global unity, successfully advocated by the non-profit organisation Peace One Day. Founded in 1999 by Jeremy Gilley, Peace One Day has the ultimate goal of institutionalising a global day of peace.
Burger King is hopeful McDonald’s will accept the offer and collaborate with them to raise awareness and increase engagement with Peace Day, on 21st September, at a pop-up McWhopper restaurant in Atlanta – the halfway point between Burger King’s Miami HQ and McDonald’s HQ in Chicago.
Senior Vice President for Global Brand Management at Burger King Corporation, Fernando Machado, says the idea is big, bold and very Burger King: “Y&R NZ brought us this audacious concept back in early 2014 and since then this project has been a true collaboration among several agencies based in different locations and our partners from Peace One Day.
“It is great to work on something that is good for the brand and has the potential to positively affect society. We all really hope that the collaboration can now extend to McDonald’s. We have the chance to make history together if they say ‘yes’. And if they say ‘no’, at least we raised awareness of Peace Day, which is the ultimate objective of the campaign.”
Y&R New Zealand CEO/CCO Josh Moore says the campaign is the result of perseverance, late nights, and an 18-month collaboration with the global Burger King marketing team.
“When we first tabled this idea with Burger King we knew it was a long shot – asking a global icon to take their hero product and blend it with that of their biggest competitor,” says Moore. But we’ve been totally overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and appetite for big thinking and bold ideas at all levels of Burger King. I only hope McDonald’s jump on board and make this a monumental event in the name of Peace Day. Let’s end the beef, with beef.”
Burger King’s ‘McWhopper’ peace proposal campaign will be rolled out in the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico and New Zealand.
Today the McDonald’s Facebook page has been quite active since their CEO responded rather condescendingly to BK via social media:
Omar Gilani Wow McDonald’s… what a shame. A simple gesture of good faith turned down so passively aggressively. Not sure I had any respect left for the company but this just overdid it.
Mimi Walker Szegda Ending the ‘Burger Wars’ on Sept 21st would be a fun, unique way to raise awareness all in the name of PEACE. Shame on you McDonald’s for your lousy response.
Fernando Lourenço McDouche, McLame, Quarter Loser, Big McPetty… yeah, I could go on and on… you just disapointed the whole world McDonald’s
Avery W. Krouse There’s just enough snark and haughtiness in this reply from a company that is quickly losing market share, cash, and public goodwill to make me understand why people are hating you more and more every day. Burger King, for good or for ill, has presented one of the most unique and fascinating ideas in fast food history and you’ve basically turned your nose up at it. Good job, McDonalds.
And YouTube just posted McWhopper to their twitter feed.
The YouTube Twitter feed has over 54 million followers.
For more information on Burger King’s ‘McWhopper’ peace proposal visit mcwhopper.com and for more information on the objectives of Peace Day visit peaceoneday.org
Client: Burger King
Agency: Y&R New Zealand
CEO / CCO: Josh Moore
Creative Director: Tom Paine
Creative: Tom Paine
Head of Planning: Jono Key
Account Director: Victoria Meo
Agency Producer: Liz Rosby
Agency Producer: Sacha Moore
Digital Producer: Melissa Logan
Senior Designer: James Wendelborn
GM Media (Auckland): Nicky Greville
Media Planner (Auckland): Marie-Claire Manson
Animation company: Assembly
Film company: Flying Fish
Music / sound design: Liquid Studios
Post production: Mandy
Digital production: Resn
Packaging: Turner Duckworth
Media (U.S): Rock Orange
Activation (U.S): DAVID
Digital (U.S): Code & Theory
PR (U.S): ABPR
Media (U.S): Horizon
24 Comments
It would help this idea to get traction if anybody had even heard of Peace Day. Advertising is only effective as a mass-market tool.
Y&R Group have McDonald’s as a client?
Good point Old CD guy. I can assure you that nobody is talking about this on social media yet. Nobody. Absolute silence. No one cares. Really no one. So good point.
@Doesn’t: Really?
This is f#$%ing incredible.
refreshingly simple and genuinely makes me smile
Same idea, campaigned out in this student folio.
http://ewanandgeorge.squarespace.com/#/peace-one-day/
Yes
http://www.campaignbrief.com/2015/03/mcdonalds-announces-yr-groups.html
Oh Old CD Guy how I love your comments. You make a really good point though. If only there were two huge commercial brands willing to take part in some sort of promotion that highlights Peace Day, people might finally get an opportunity to hear about Peace Day and then an idea like this would work.
Small world machines is the perfect example for peace day.
So good.
I think it’s currently touring Syria…
@irony… i suppose mass coverage this morning on NBC news, in NY Times, USA Today, Guardian, Fortune, etc, doesn’t really count, nor close to 1m views on youtube in less than 1hr. Good on you, Y&R NZ for having a go at this, rather than limiting yourself to the local market & its trolls.
Awesome. Well done, Y&R.
@bigup… I think this is the point Iron E was trying to make…
Feel for you guys, this is gonna be a big campaign. Hopefully nothing sinister going on
But I’m sure I saw this in a student’s book in the last round of interns?
Cool – for selling it in – but credit the poor fuckers!
Read the comments not the NZ blog – there’s nothing sinister here. Just an unfortunate case of Y&R CD Tom Paine had the idea first.
This is great. Absolutely love it.
I smell a rat. I mean, burger.
Biggest idea in the world this year, amazing!
A good serve doesn’t a great tennis match make.
So far, Maccas hasn’t responded as anticipated.
It has achieved squat until Maccs agree to play.
So far, you have one heck of a ‘wedding proposal’ but the way I see it, the bride didn’t say “Yes’.
Sounds like a burn for BK.
But a self serving ‘feather in the cap’ for Y&R.
And a shit load of exposure for Peace One Day
You don’t belong in marketing
^ game set match
i can’t think of a bigger campaign to come out of new zealand. ever. this is lovely and has done the job already. five achievement stars for you, y&r.
Just sensational Josh and the team!