Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, China, Chinese Culture, Comment, Confidence, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Embarrassing Moments, Fake Attitude, Food, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Mischief, New Product Mentalness, Packaging, Standards, Viz
The fast food industry is having a hard time.
As tastes change and a more healthy lifestyle becomes more desirable, it is getting more difficult for them to operate as they once did.
While some brands are evolving their offering – like McDonald’s – others are taking a more pragmatic perspective.
The most famous, recent example is the BK Mouldy Burger which ignited all manner of debate – often with people quick to say it won’t work without anyone actually knowing what the goal of the work actually was.
Well in South Korea there’s a burger company that makes BK look positively innocent.
It’s not just how they used Supreme to inspire their logo in a way Uncle Martian would be jealous of.
Nor is it their audacious copyright infringement of famous cartoon characters to talk about themselves.
And it’s not even their proud claims of being ‘100% Beef Meat’.
No … it’s none of those, it’s their utter confidence of their product over their competitors.
Take a look …
Amazing eh?
Not just the aggressiveness … but the choice of words.
Linking the words ‘burgers’ and ‘shit’ makes a mouldy burger look positively appetising.
Then there’s the fact it’s in English.
When I lived in China, there were a bunch of stores that used English in their copy.
Sometimes it was for the audience it was targeting.
Sometimes it was because they thought it made them look ‘sophisticated’.
But a lot of the time – as I think is the case here – they did it because it enhanced their ‘authenticity’.
Given burgers are very American, I feel their idea was that by using English and being aggressive in their tone, they encapsulated the American spirit and as such, could say their burgers were authentic.
Of course, given Burger King and McDonald’s are also American slightly undermines that idea, but hey – it doesn’t seem they really put too much thought into how they came across.
I must admit, when I saw it, I couldn’t help feel it was like a Viz fake-ad from the 80’s.
Viz – for those who don’t know – was/is an English ‘adult-humour’ comic.
Years ago, I approached them about starting an ad agency.
They said no, which still disappoints me as not only were their spoof ads brilliant, but based on both Billionbox and BK’s recent work … there’s more and more brands seemingly trying to copy their style but without the brilliance, clarity, humour or memorability as them.
This is so good I can’t even bring myself to add to it.
Except to say I won’t be adding to it.
God, I can’t help myself can I?
The only downside is that if I’ve started the week with posts about shit, how disgusting and low-brow will I have gone by Friday? Be afraid, be very afraid.
I love Viz.
I love them with all my heart.
I had the great experience of doing some work with them years ago, when I was trying to convince them to partner with cynic to be part of the creative department. My theory was anyone who could create such evil genius could create amazing advertising.
Alas they weren’t into it. Probably for the best.
But that still doesn’t stop me being in awe of their brilliance, vulgarity and sheer immaturity …
Hope the above #TOPTIP makes your Monday slightly less shit than your typical Monday.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Content, Corporate Evil, Crap Products In History, Daily Fail, Daily Mail, Diversity, Home, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Prejudice, Viz
The Daily Mail.
God, how I hate it.
Pedlars of hate, half-truths and prejudice, while all the time claiming they are a ‘family newspaper’ that practices the highest standards of journalism.
For anyone who may be in doubt of how bollocks that is, I suggest you do one of four things.
1. Read a single edition of their rubbish.
2. Read about some of their biggest lies, that they tried to claim were true.
3. Read how they – and others – value convenience over journalism.
4. Read the rest of this post.
OK, I know I’ve written a lot about my hatred of the Daily Mail but just recently, it appears their arrogance of getting away with any old bullshit is reaching new heights.
I absolutely appreciate how hard it must be to fill a newspaper every day.
I can’t imagine the pressure they must be under given they always start from zero.
But I still don’t get how they can consider themselves a serious journalistic force when they post stories – on their front page – like these …
… and …
I mean, come on.
This is what they consider news?
A ‘find the obvious soldiers’ game and a ‘grey is the colour of chavs’ article?
Seriously, the wonderfully ridiculous adult comic Viz is more mature than that and they once ran a piece that said cat food manufacturers should be launching a ‘cat arse’ flavour, rather than chicken or fish or duck.
Look, I get in a war situation the enemy may find it difficult to spot a couple of SAS soldiers dressed in white from a distance when it’s snowing. But on a close up picture where they literally tell you there’s SAS soldiers dressed in white … well, it is even easier than those shitty hook-a-duck games you get at dodgy fairs around the country.
And as for positioning people who paint THEIR OWN HOME grey as enemies of British culture, well surely they’ve just hit peak Daily Mail condescending judgement?
What next, an ‘expose’ on how people’s choice of curtains, flowers or sunglasses are ruining Britain?
Christ, it’s grey.
It’s not like that person who built a fibreglass shark on their roof.
Or pained their house with red stripes, specifically to fuck-off the neighbours.
Or placed the Freddie Mercury statue from the Dominion Theatre roof in their garden.
The way the Daily Mail are going on, you’d imagine they were the national newspaper of the communist party.
If the colour of a house makes them – and their readers – so angry, it makes me want to hire a team to find the home addresses of all the editorial staff at The Mail and their readers and have them go round and paint their buildings different shades of grey and pink.
Instead, I’ll just be happy that my house is partially grey and that will deeply offend anyone associated with The Daily Mail.
And to think I didn’t believe I could love my house even more …