Burger King pulls another trick on their fast-food brethren

Burger King’s Halloween campaign, “Scary Places”, shows creepy abandoned Wendy’s and McDonald’s

Burger King is a big fan of trolling its rivals on Halloween. Who could forget Scary Clown Night, or the time BK dressed up as McDonald’s in Queens?

This year, BK and agency MullenLowe US have pulled another trick on their fast-food brethren with a campaign called “Scary Places.” It’s centred around five abandoned fast-food restaurants in the US that are being featured in ads. The chains are not named, but in the ads below, it’s clear they are old McDonald’s and Wendy’s locations.

Copy on the first ad reads, “Beware of places that never flame-grilled.” The second ad reads, “Legend has it, they never flame-grilled.”

“Why are these places so scary? When they were open, they did not deliver the beloved flame-grilled taste,” Burger King says. “On some nights you can even hear the sizzling screams of the flat top. What could be scarier than that?”

The campaign goes beyond ads to include a location-based couponing feature involving the BK app. Burger King will use push notifications to the BK App, as well as social media and this landing page, to direct people to the five actual abandoned restaurants—then, using geolocation will reward folks who drive by them with a coupon for a free Whopper.

The abandoned restaurants are located in Houston, Texas, Dayton, Ohio, Birmingham, Alabama; McHenry, Illinois, and Johnston, Rhode Island.

“To us, nothing is scarier than a place that never flame-grilled,” said Ellie Doty, Chief Marketing Officer of Burger King North America. “While Halloween looks a bit different this year, we’re embracing it in a way that keeps guests’ safety top of mind in current times. A good scare and a delicious reward of a flame-grilled Whopper.”

The ads were set to appear in local papers including the Chicago Tribune, Northwest Herald, Providence Journal, Dayton Daily News, Birmingham News and Houston Chronicle.