CREATIVE SHOWCASE

The concept was straightforward: Find people who never tasted a hamburger before (surely a limited demographic in this day and age), feed each of them a Whopper and a Big Mac, and let them decide which was more pleasing to their palates. "By embarking on a voyage of this magnitude that held no guarantees and left us open to vulnerabilities, we took a leap of faith that our signature product would win people over at first bite," said Russ Klein, Burger King's president of global marketing, strategy, and innovation, in a news release.

With a project that captures this "first bite" in documentary style, it's hard to say whether Whopper Virgins pokes fun at itself, or if it was indeed serious about delivering Whoppers to the unenlightened masses. The latter theory incensed some folks to label the campaign an act of presumptuous new-age imperialism.

CP+B continued to fuel the fire with another hot idea: the much-lauded and disputed Whopper Sacrifice Facebook app, which tempted users to swap 10 of their friends for a free Whopper -- but with a catch: Any sacrificed parties would be notified that they had been snubbed for a burger. In short, it was a digital massacre. A total of 233,906 friends had been wiped out by the time Facebook and Burger King agreed to "sacrifice" the application after just one week of activity.

Not only did this campaign pose the question, "What is a Facebook friendship worth?," but it also managed to get people (and Facebook itself) all hot and bothered. Anytime personal emotions are involved, people might get hurt, but they also get interested. CP+B took a risk by angering some and amusing others, but it managed to engage Burger King's target audience in a fresh and memorable way.

Some might say that Burger King was right to gamble on a "Have it Your Way" relationship with its agency. Meanwhile, others may argue that Burger King gave CP+B too much free rein and endangered the brand's reputation.

What's not up for debate is that CP+B knows how to create a splash in the industry. Its work inspires reactions that run the gamut from awe to disgust, but at the very least, neither Burger King nor CP+B can complain about how much attention the Whopper has received. Now, whether that attention was worth the risk -- that's a matter of dicussion for our panelists.
-- Emily Chang, editorial intern, iMedia Connection

1. They completely "get" interactive
2. They completely "get" the 18-24 male demographic

Any agency would be envious of the publicity CP+B's work for BK generates, and when SNL is doing a spoof of your campaign (Whopper Virgins), then you know you've hit a cultural nerve center bull's-eye. Whopper Virgins is not completely interactive, but it goes outside the norm of conventional advertising for brands that are trying to be viral. This campaign is funny (first and foremost) and viral as a result.

I am on the fence, though, on Whopper Sacrifice. Though it is an engaging use of the Facebook Application platform, it does beg a question of where privacy begins and ends on the network. The idea is great -- sacrifice your friends for a free Whopper -- but the notification of that sacrifice across one's newsfeed is another matter altogether. Would the campaign have been as successful if friends were not notified publicly that they were sacrificed? No one will ever know, as Facebook and BK have agreed to end the campaign.

I forgot to add one final thing to what CP+B does better than any agency right now. It completely "gets" how to sell clients on high-risk/high-reward ideas and campaigns that most brands will dismiss right off the bat. That's the secret to its success, along with Jeff Benjamin, CP+B's head of interactive.  Jeff -- here's your shout-out. :-)
-- Matt Szymczyk, CEO, Zugara

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has once again mastered the art of using relatively simple ideas to create memorable, controversial, and effective campaigns that have completely destroyed the mold as to what advertising can and should be.

CP+B relied on a tried and true strategy to promote the Whopper: the taste test. Only, how can you have a true taste test when the burger consumption market is saturated with marketing and product recognition? Enter the Whopper Virgins.

The habitually disgruntled ad world wasted no time proclaiming Burger King to be ignorant, offensive, and exploitative. However, I am not nearly as cantankerous as my colleagues. Seeing this campaign next to its inferior fast food brethren makes it hard for me to argue that Whopper Virgins is anything but a strong conceptual idea with some exceptional flaws. I can't deny that dogsledding in a grill and delivering the meat in via chopper is a bit preposterous. Yet despite the mixed reactions to Whopper Virgins, it is the Whopper Sacrifice application that is the most sadistic, smartest, and best of them all. It asked a simple question: "Who would you sacrifice a Facebook friendship with to get a free Whopper?" Easy to comprehend and use, it was immediately passed around among my friends. I actually received an email from someone before he sacrificed me. I thought, "That's nice. Too bad I didn't do the same before I canned him." Unfortunately, the application violated Facebook privacy rights and has since been dismantled. It's a shame, because I have a feeling they would have given away quite a few Whoppers and caused a number of irreparable rifts before all was said and done.

Whatever you may think, the real winning aspect of both Virgin and its predecessor from 2007, Whopper Freakout, is that they don't rely on the 30-second spot to be the primary content, but rather use it to drive people to a longer, more fulfilling brand experience. The commercials are compelling enough to bring you there and the content is appealing enough to keep you there. It is an excellent example of the power of branded content online and reaching audience where they live regardless of medium. 

CP+B's goal wasn't just to show a taste test or build an app, it was to sell burgers any way possible: push buttons, get noticed, and get people thinking about where they eat. It created debate, was parodied on SNL and pushed its client into mainstream popular culture. It's hard to debate that 2008 was marketing's "year of the Whopper."
-- Dan Cordella, copywriter, Agency.com