People Are Trolling Burger King's New 'O.K. Google' Commercial With Epic Results
By Mustafa GatollariApr. 26 2020, Updated 3:20 p.m. ET
When it comes to marketing, you've got to think outside of the box. Burger king has been the home of my favorite french fries and some of the best marketing for fast food joints. But outside of their fries I really do like their mascot the King. He has really gotten into some different things like video games and people dressing up like him for Halloween. But as he evolves into media sometimes they go to far.
Simply getting on camera and talking about how awesome your product is doesn't really do it for consumers anymore. We've become a little too jaded and savvy for that.
So you've got to think outside of the box, something that Burger King thought it was doing when it prompted customers to ask their Google device what's in a Whopper Burger. The actor in the ad says, "O.K. Google, what is the Whopper Burger?"
The 15-second ad seems harmless enough.
Now the problem with this, is that it pulls the data from Burger King's Wikipedia Page. Once the Internet found it, it edited BK's Wikipedia page with some hilarious results.
Google killed Burger King's newest TV ad that had a disastrous flaw pic.twitter.com/LJUjpunnEF
— Business Insider (@businessinsider) April 13, 2017
Depending on when you ran the commercial, the Whopper contains cyanide, dead children, woodchips, poison, or mustard gas.
People were quick to point out to Burger King that it was their own darn fault for trusting Wikipedia in the first place.
@businessinsider And that's why you do not use #Wikipedia pic.twitter.com/DJW1hOz5KG
— Nelson Oluwabukola M (@michaelrythms) April 13, 2017
@businessinsider Reasons Wikipedia isn't a reliable resource.
— Jordan Reynolds 🇺🇸 (@Reynolds_Live) April 13, 2017
re: that burger king ad, yeah relying on linking to wiki text through an assistant definitely can't go wrong or be misused in any way
— Anthony Kirkpatrick (@nonelement) April 12, 2017
Others were just upset that Burger King would create an intrusive ad.
Ad companies: "why does everyone use ad blockers?"
— small dog friend (@duckinator) April 13, 2017
Everyone: "INTRUSIVE ADS ARE BAD"
Burger King: "Ok Google, define intrusive"
And thought the burger company had what's coming to them.
The Burger King Whopper / Google Home ad mess. (BK ran a TV ad designed to trigger Google Home. Pretty annoying.) https://t.co/waVU7J69RB
— Adrian Weckler (@adrianweckler) April 13, 2017
While those in the PR and marketing business are saying that BK only benefits from the backlash because all exposure = good exposure.
Amount of coverage Burger King has received from a cheap-to-shoot ad is quite incredible.
— Mike Lowe (@mrmickeylowe) April 13, 2017
Quite the success.
But I still don’t like BK.
As long as you're thinking about burgers, you're gonna get hungry sooner or later. Great, now I want one of their new chicken sandwiches. I guess it's totally working on me?
