Burger King disguises Whoppers as popcorn to subvert movie theater food law

Stunt by McCann Lima last month led to a 40% sales uplift

Published On
Apr 20, 2018

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Burger King hacked a new Peruvian law about eating in movie theaters last month with a stunt that saw it disguise its Whoppers--as bags of popcorn.

Until March 25, moviegoers could only consume food and beverages bought in the theater's food concessions in Peru, and any external purchase was forbidden. A new law changed the rules however; consumers could bring in their own food but it had to be "similar" to items sold in the cinema's food concessions.

Burger King's local agency McCann used this as an opportunity for a stunt; it created "King Popcorn," a popcorn bag specially designed to hide additional contents of a Whopper and order of French fries. The bag was identical in appearance to those sold in theaters and thus easy to sneak inside the movie.

Social media loved the stunt and soon the movie theaters were clamping down on it of course--yet Burger King still saw a 40% sales increase.

It's another clever activation from the brand--though when it comes to movie theaters, we're not sure that a smelly burger eater is the person we'd want to be sitting next to, coupled with the noise and crunch of their popcorn.