#adfreak

In a recent article, Burger King’s New Trolling Ploy Sends Fans to McDonald’s to Unlock a 1-Cent Whopper Deal written by Gabriel Beltrone, is discussing the trolling that Burger King is doing with what they call the ‘Whopper Detour’. This new stunt basically goes like this, you download the Burger King app, drive within 600ft of a McDonalds, then you are able to order a whopper for 1 cent, and then you have to drive to the nearest Burger King to pick it up. This geotargeting advertising is actually sending customers to what they called their “arch-rival’s” stores in hope they will make the trip back to a Burger King. There have been things like this before between to the two fast food chains, but nothing as petty and trolling as this one. Others included the Whopper-Big Mac mashup for World Peace day or the Whopper Sacrifice where is you unfriended 10 people, you received a coupon. The question is, will this new kind of funny, trolling advertising work? Or do you think that the Whopper isn’t worth the hassle of having to drive to two separate locations? The end of the article states, “customers might still be better off thanking Burger King for the laugh and springing for the closer Big Mac” (Beltrone).

I chose this article because I found the title interesting at first. Then when looking at the article, I found that it was funny because I had never really heard of anything like this before. I think it’s an interesting way to get people to laugh and have them save money to come get a burger, but just as the article talks about; I see the possibility of good publicity, but not sure about profit.