Pity Poor Burger King
For what it is worth, I happen to like Burger King better than McDonald's but when it comes to producing commercials you have to really question where the hell Burger King's head was at. Anyone remember back in the 1970's when they launched the blatant rip-off of the McDonald Land characters including the half hearted Ronald McDonald character "The Burger King"? That silly ad campaign saw them face a lawsuit that not only involved McDonald's but also Syd and Marty Kroft. (Inexplicably, they resurrected the Burger King character for the current listless ad campaign) And does anyone remember the stupid "Herb" commercials? The character who never tasted a Whopper? Remember the mystery that surrounded him in terms of what he looked like? In order for that commercial to really work he had to be a really memorable and unique character. When Herb finally debuted he was a carbon copy, cliched nerd with a bow tie. NO ORIGINALITY at all. That effectively sunk BK's ad campaign along with the fact that it was also and obvious (weak) attempt to create a "where's the beef style" every person ad campaign...but it flopped. Again, we could all identify ourselves with Clara P. because we have always received a food item we weren't happy with....but Herb was an insult. You want to draw people who never had a Whopper before into the premises. Herb was NOT the character to do that because people who never tried a Whopper before looked at Herb and said "That's not me you jerks."
Here is Herb's Parents in a commercial guaranteed not to sell one iota of BK product
I'm Not Herb is equally as LAME
In terms of awful commercials, this BK commercial has equal parts bad concept, humor only funny to the people who approved the commercial, a misunderstanding that the weirdness of this commercial would completely turn off an audience and nonsensical ending that relies on people having either heard of snake style kung fu or have at least watched THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS and, of course, ridiculously offensive racial stereotyping.....


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