Burger King's ads for plant-based Whoppers may confuse meat-lovers

It's hard to tell the difference in closeup photography in campaign from David Madrid

Published On
Mar 03, 2022
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The incredibly detailed close-up photography in a new outdoor campaign from Burger King may have meat eaters drooling—it depicts red, juice, textured shots of what appear to be the beefy ingredients of a burger. But actually, it's a campaign promoting the fast feeder's plant-based Whoppers—and it's deliberately hard to tell the difference.

With the tagline, "Sorry for the confusion, meat lovers," the ads, created by David Madrid, consist of photography of vegetables; red pepper, beetroot, and radicchio. The images are not, however, of actual Burger King products, but are used to illustrate that meat and vegetables can be visually similar.

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The aim is to get skeptical customers to really believe that plant-based products often feel, taste and look like real meat, according to Iwo Zakowski, head of global brand marketing at Burger King, in a statement. "We wanted to bring a visually powerful message that makes you re-consider that not everything in life is what is seems to be."

"Many times, guests can't tell the difference between the traditional Whopper and the plant-based Whopper. So, we challenged a food photographer and a food stylist to shoot some vegetables in a way that would make them look like meat," added David Madrid executive creative director André Toledo. "The idea was to create ads that would make people ask themselves ‘Wait, is this meat or is this a plant?'”

The campaign is running in Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil and Germany, among other markets.

 

 

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