Have you ever lined up for fast food and the idea, “Gosh, wouldn’t it be outstanding if I want to order something that contemplated my mood this second time?”
Me neither. But let’s reflect on the consideration of Burger King’s new advertising and marketing campaign for a moment before we disregard it as flame-grilled nonsense for hungry millennials.
This week, the agency unveiled a brand new line of “Real Meals.” Available in chosen markets, these “Real Meals” are Whopper mixtures — burgers, fries, and drinks — available in containers decorated with a “style of moods.”
It’s as if Nike advertised a new line of pass-running shoes for the glum. Or Ikea launched a unique-version Billy bookcase for self-hating hoarders and conflicted % rats.
So let’s say you give up your new job because your boss is a maniac, one of the eventualities in Burger King’s new #FeelYourWay ad. Well, now you could sidle up to the counter and inform the minimum-wage cashier you want the, ahem, “Pissed Meal.”
Or perhaps you’re fed up and defiant about classmates scrawling “skank” in your locker every other scene in the ad. If you’re also feeling peckish, order the “DGAF Meal.”
Perhaps you’re stressed about your pupil loan or the possibility of by no means transferring out. So fill your stomach with the “Blue Meal.”
Sick and bored with judgmental passersby providing you with aspect-eye due to your status as a teenage mom? All you need is the “Salty” or “YAAS” food.
All of this is proof the arena has long passed upside down.
I’m normally reluctant to char Burger King too critically because the purpose is noble. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. So Burger King hopes to eat away at the stigma around mental fitness troubles, one Whopper at a time. It wishes customers to understand it knows “no person is happy all of the time.”
But that’s not searing perception — it’s a reasonably-priced shot at McDonald’s. And beyond this company trolling of a competitor’s “Happy Meal,” the messaging is likewise unluckily doubtful.
Burger King is now receiving kudos for this initiative. But do human beings not comprehend all we’re handling here is PACKAGING? It’s nuts. Burger King is claiming five new menu gadgets designed to increase social attention while, in truth, all it’s doing is promoting antique-faculty Whopper combinations in extraordinary packing containers this month.
“Real Meals” is the faux news of speedy food.
First, regardless of which meal you order, what you get is the same. There are no ingredients or peripherals tailored to your “mood.” If you order the Pissed Meal, it does no longer include a useful brochure on anger control. The Blue Meal is not laced with Prozac or wrapped with a 1-800 variety to a suicide prevention hotline. The DGAF combination no longer includes sociological literature on the lengthy-variety blessings of really giving an eff.
So the simplest element “Real Meals” does is remind you of how you feel you’re gorging on speedy food; you’re probably not feeling incredible.
If you’re “pissed,” cramming a burger down your throat while gazing at the word “pissed” is unlikely to make you sense any much less “pissed.” If whatever, you’ll feel greater “pissed” due to the fact you are now stewing interior a gustatory comments loop. And telling the people at the next table you’re feeling “Salty” is a recipe for misunderstanding.
So, this isn’t always about customer moods. It’s about advertising and income.
If Burger King genuinely wanted to help improve mental fitness, it would start selling nothing but corn and broccoli. Nutrition is crucial to how all and sundry feel. If even the most pleasant man or woman ate nothing but Whoppers or Big Macs for the following six months, his temper might get worse.
Put it this manner: Donald Trump loves speedy food. It’s all he eats. Do you need to be like Donald Trump?
Of course, “no person is always satisfied,” Burger King. And of direction, it’s crucial to “maintain it actually” regarding emotional health. But sitting below fluorescent lighting fixtures, even as tucking into empty calories that telegraph your state of mind, is no way to chase down the Zen of self-actualization.
It is a way to make an idiot of yourself in public.
I regularly assume how unique the world is, probably now, if the greatest era that fought in the Second World War has been a bunch of snowflakes forehead-crushed into getting in touch with their innermost emotions. Democracy, as we are aware of it, would not exist.
If Burger King should attempt to tie temper to meals for advertising and marketing functions, it must be aspirational. Forget approximately “Pissed,” “Blue,” “DGAF,” “Salty,” and “YAAS.” The “Real Meals” must be known as “Resilient,” “Driven,” “Buoyant,” “Sage,” and “Bring It.”
