Burger King: “Shop at McDonald’s.” The appeal on social media

At 1.53 pm yesterday on the Twitter profile of Burger King UK An unexpected announcement appears. A short statement titled Ordered by McDonald’s. Twelve lines that are not what they seem: Anglo-Saxons have accustomed us not only to comparative advertising, but to ridicule between competitors (proverbial among Pepsi me Coca Cola). In this case, the message is anything but sarcastic. And it goes like this: Order at McDonald’s. We never imagine asking you. Just as we never imagined inviting you to order from KFC, Underground, Domino, Pizza hut, Five boyss, Greggs, Taco bell, Papa John’s, Leon… or all the other independent stores, too numerous to list here. In short: of any chain our sister (Quick or not so fast). We never thought we would ask for it but restaurants that employ thousands of people really need your support right now (read also Massimo Bottura’s 5 ideas to save restaurants). So if you want to help, keep enjoying succulent dishes thanks to delivery, to to carry out and to Self-service. Ordering a Whopper is always the best, but getting a Big Mac isn’t that bad. Beware. The Burger King UK team.

The appeal and the little restaurateurs

The English headquarters of Burger King has a fairly modest twitter (60,539 followers against almost two million of the American), but the publication was a great success: 121,527 hearts, 43,800 retweets, 2,074 comments, mostly approval (one follower jokes: The most ambitious crossover of all times !). Safe, efficient and brilliant communication operation. But an Italian reader can’t help but notice what you order at any of our sister chains. Even in a message from industry support, the divisive food industry: invites you to keep commanding the big names, leaving the hundreds of thousands of small catering businesses on the other hand (which in turn employ millions of workers, although they are pulverized in numerous and small places). It would be bread for the teeth of a Michael moore or one Naomi klein who could comment: this shows that the real opponents of the big names are not the other big names, but the many little restaurateurs. Obviously it’s easier for Burger King to say Order at McDonald’s than the little place below.

The message in Italy

PS: today at noon, three hours after the publication of our article, in the stories Instagram and in the profile Facebook from Burger King Italy The personalized campaign dedicated to our country is launched. Who, in addition to the great international ones, mentions the Italian chains and dedicates space to the whole world of catering, even to the small and familiar: It would never have occurred to us to ask you such a thing. As we never thought, we would encourage you to order at KFC, The old wild west, Road House, Temakinho, Dominos Pizza, Poke house, Rossopomodoro, Caff Naples, Spontini, Italian chocolates, Right sandwich, The Piadineria, Pantry Emilia… or any other bar or restaurant, small or large, under your house. The fact that the campaign wants to cover the entire sector also underlined Andrea Valota, CEO of Burger King Italia: At this time, the catering industry, from the large chains to the very small local reality, which in Italy employs hundreds of thousands of workers, has I need everyone’s support. The publication on Facebook is achieving good success: after three hours it has almost 15 thousand likes and 5 thousand shares.