Burger King UK hijacks Christmas with cheeky Santa ad and insane music video

With apologies to Ad Age readers under 10 years old, there has been some debate over the years about the existence of Santa Claus. Now, Burger King U.K. joins the side of the skeptics with a holiday campaign featuring Santa and the one-word headline “Whoppers.” The “Whoppers” execution, from BBH London, will be running on out-of-home placements around the country. Hopefully not too many children will understand the other meaning of “whopper” as an extremely big fib—“like suggesting,” BK said in press materials, “there’s a genial man in a red, fur-trimmed suit who uses a herd of reindeer to deliver presents to children all over the world, without being caught on Ring cameras or being questioned over the GDPR compliance of his naughty and nice list. Which of course, there absolutely is (for any kids reading this).” That’s just one piece of the campaign. BBH has also created a bizarre eight-minute music video featuring a version of the song “Driving Home for Christmas” rewritten as “Driving (thru the) Home (of the Whopper) for Christmas.” Addressed to those who “need to put food in your faces,” the new lyrics—voiced by what sounds like an AI—include specific directions to a number of BK locations in the U.K. The same content is being repurposed as radio ads. Listen to one here: “As a challenger brand, you gotta come into the conversation slightly different, especially at Christmas. So instead of joining in, we decided to hijack. Merry Christmas,” said Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes, deputy executive creative director at BBH London. “It’s hard for brands to stand out at Christmas. So instead of trying to out-Christmas anyone, we decided to hijack it,” added Soco Núñez de Cela, brand and communications director at BK U.K. “We had a lot of fun with arguably the biggest Whopper of the season and creating a tune that will be in our heads and hopefully everyone else’s throughout the season.”

Burger King UK hijacks Christmas with cheeky Santa ad and insane music video

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