McWhopper - BK's peace deal to McDs shows clever sabre-rattling on both sides

If you haven’t seen Burger King’s proposal to McDonalds for a one-day truce on World Peace Day (and McDonald’s response) please look at these links before reading on. You may say “WOW” as loudly as I did.

BK's proposal

McD's response

All boxes ticked for Burger King in creating a topical event (and a lot of exhaustive content) while MacDonalds (whose efforts in maintaining personality probably shout as loud as their food) seem to have gone off-brand with their haughty and corporate response. This could be the Social Media event of the year and, to that extent, I expect it will blaze the trail for more of the same in the future – I’m loving it.

Looking at responses so far, BK certainly seem to have won the gold medal for knee-jerk reactions as a lot of people side with them over McD's reply, but I expect it will be more of a flash in a much bigger, older pan. Big Social Media victories base their strategies on stories that grow (like the John Lewis Christmas commercial). This challenge, by contrast, is surely a one-off and, if much bigger news stories can be forgotten in 3 years, this joint-burger idea could be forgotten by Christmas.

So what about the long-term effect, once the sizzle dies down? A few visitors to McD's Facebook site are grasping an emerging nettle. I quote:

"LOL at conglomerates conflating fast food with world peace."
"If they wanted a global effort they'd have suggested more than a burger joint in Atlanta."

If BK's proposal materialised (which surely it can't - could they really agree on a burger that contained 50/50 IP in 26 days?) one possible headline pay-out could be: "Hybrid burgers eaten in America while serious war continues in Syria".

Because in all seriousness, World Peace Day was adopted by the United Nations as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence. No matter how well-placed BK’s ideals may be, it’s a much more sobering mission than pitching a mixed-brand burger. With many pundits already questioning the taste of the idea more than the taste of the burger, this emerging nettle could have some serious thorns. McD’s response seems to share this intellectual high-ground despite the sour-grapes of their sign-off.

But in reality, both companies know this is about publicity, and the proposal doesn't need to come to fruition for that to happen. BK have achieved a victory by making a gutsy splash with such exhaustive and high-quality content. They've already started the #settlethebeef discussions that they proposed. Let’s see what it evolves into.

BK are surely the opposite of McD's, in that their brand reputation for the flavour of their product eclipses their corporate personality (am I the only one who found that horrid, glassy-faced king a bit creepy?) so this is certainly a big step up in putting a fun face to the whole company as opposed to just the serving counter.

McD's are leaps ahead in projecting their credentials at a customer level. They deliver servings of fun, transparency and CSR at the counter along with a slightly tired flagship burger but a regularly-updated range of other options which show varying success at gaining traction. At the top, they walk like business heavyweights - their product is a burger, and their brand is a business.

BK, with one tenth of the profit but still a corporate giant, deliver something different at the till. They have a great flagship sandwich; their product AND their brand are a burger and that’s what you get for your money – simple reliability at the customer front. But they perform less visibly in the other respects, which is why they may have chosen to pitch this battle at a higher level. They've thrown down a big and impressive gauntlet aimed at McD's top table, who have responded with surprising sobriety in a crystal-clear corporate tone, saying:

"[...]between us there is simply a friendly business competition and certainly not the unequalled circumstances of the real pain and suffering of war."

McD’s are being labelled as the party-poopers but, as the public think more deeply about World Peace Day, their stance may prevail.

McD's have, for the last few years, grasped the issues of local litter, green supply chains and local employment. They've shown that they care by picking up these issues and running with them. BK have yet to show such a level of ballplay, and World Peace is one hell of a big ball. It's a certainly a very big ball to carry if no one else wants to play your game. It's an even bigger ball to have to put down again in public when you decide you didn't really want to play with it if no-one else joined in. In fact, at that size, it could really hurt your foot.

In transactional analysis, McD’s are being a snappy parent to BK’s precocious child. In the long term, I wonder if this parent-to-child chastisement will shine through its haughty delivery and have the longer life, if only in the minds of communication strategists and not the bigger demographic of people who buy burgers!

Justin Roux is a former writer for The Fast Food Review