Taco Bell's 2007 World Series promotion

Last year, Taco Bell's World Series promotion was to offer a free taco to everyone in America if there was left-field home run during Game 3 of the World Series. After six innings with no home runs, Taco Bell extended the promotion to include any home runs.

There were no home runs in the game, but the sportscasters talked about Taco Bell and their promotion during the entire game giving Taco Bell some great exposure (although I'm sure it cost them plenty).

This year Taco Bell's World Series promotion involves stolen bases. Any stolen base during the entire World Series will earn everyone in America a free taco.

Taco Bell is using the slogan "90ft. to free tacos for America" for this promotion. 90ft. being the distance between bases on the baseball diamond.

Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock, who stole a record 14 bases in World Series play (including an individual series record seven during the 1967 MLB World Series), will serve as Taco Bell's spokesperson. "Steal A Base, Steal A Taco" will also benefit a worthy cause -- a monetary donation of $20,000 will be made to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

If there is a stolen base, you can obtain your free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 (if base is stolen in Games 1 or 2 on October 24 or October 25, 2007) OR November 6, 2007 (if base is stolen in Games 3-7, October 27, 28, 29, 31, November 1, 2007). (More details at www.StealaBaseStealaTaco.com)

The good news for taco lover's: There has been at least one stolen base in every World Series matchup since 1990.

Parents scold McDonald's for 'selling sex'

QSR Magazine is reporting that a parents organization is suing McDonald's for it's "My Scene Barbie" promotion:

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) is demanding that McDonald's immediately end what it calls its "highly sexualized" My Scene Barbie Happy Meal promotion featuring "ludicrously proportioned" Barbies with micro miniskirts, halter tops, and rollerblades.

"It's bad enough that McDonald's continues to use toys to sell kids on junk food," says CCFC's director, Dr. Susan Linn, a psychologist at Judge Baker Children's Center. "But to lure young girls to its restaurants by promoting the worst sexualized stereotypes is reprehensible."

more at QSR Magazine...

BK not meeting kids advertising pledge yet

UPDATE:
I received an e-mail from Burger King today regarding my article below. My sincerest apologies to Burger King for making a critical error in reading their "Corporate Pledge" regarding advertising to children and healthy Kid's Meals for children.

I misread the date that the pledge is to begin. It is not for over a year: December 31, 2008.

The thrust of my article was that their pledge to consumers would begin fairly soon. This is not the case. it is 14 months away.

I am still concerned that Burger King is marketing 840 calorie Kid's Meals directly to children via their web site, but they certainly have not broken their promise or violated their pledge. At least Burger King has made a pledge to improve this in the future. That's more than most other fast food restaurant chains have done.

Here is the complete text of the e-mail I received from Burger King:

Dear Fast Food News:
As a spokesperson for the Burger King Corporation, I wanted to provide clarification regarding your post on our timeline for enacting our advertising pledge. If you refer to our Pledge, you’ll see that we’ve actually committed to updating our Kids Meals and limiting our advertising by December 31, 2008 (not January 1, 2008, as you state).

We are fully committed to taking positive steps to provide children with new and innovative food and beverage products that will provide more nutritionally balanced menu options for kids. But developing and distributing new products to thousands of Burger King restaurants across the country is a complex, multi-step process that can take months. That said, we are moving as quickly as possible and hope that we are able to meet that deadline even sooner, but want to make sure that we do it right. The January 1, 2008 date that you refer to is our commitment date for limiting advertising in schools, as well as limiting product placements in movies and other such media. While this commitment is part of our overall Pledge, it’s logistically easier for us to implement, and therefore we were able to set a more aggressive timeline for it.

I hope this helps clarify our timeline and reassures you that we are taking our pledge seriously. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Keva Silversmith
Corporate Communications
Burger King Corporation

Burger King announced their highly detailed pledge on marketing to children on September 7, 2007. The pledge is set to take effect in 79 days 444 days, on January 1, 2008 December 31, 2008.

They aren't there yet.

They've violated at least three of the five nutritional standards they set up for themselves in a new ad campaign.

On their new "Viva Pinata" web site, Burger King makes it clear that the site is aimed at kids and that it is advertising:

One of the features of the site allows kids to build their own kid's meal with standard items on the BK Kid's meal menu. This menu includes more healthy items like applesauce, milk and apple juice, but it also includes a double cheeseburger, Coca-Cola and fries.

Taken directly from Burger King's pledge: "the Kids Meal (consisting of an entrée, side dish and beverage) advertised in our National Advertising will provide, in total:

• No more than 560 calories per meal;
• Less than 30 percent of calories from fat;
• No more than 10 percent of calories from added sugars."

"...all food pages of our company- owned websites that are primarily directed to children under 12 years old will be for Kids Meals that meet the Burger King Corporation Nutrition Criteria."

So let's take a look at one of the Kid's Meal options advertised on the Viva Pinata site (pictured below, left):

Double cheeseburger, small, salted fries, and a kid's Coca Cola. 840 calories, 378 calories from fat, (that's 45% of calories from fat*), 42 grams of fat, 87 grams carbohydrates, 36 grams sugars (that's 144 calories from sugars which is 17% of total calories*), 1410 mg sodium, 32 grams protein, 3 grams fiber.

840 calories is 280 calories over their pledged future limit of 560.
45% of calories from fat is 15% more than their pledged future limit of 30%.
17% of calories from sugars is 7% more than their pledged future limit of 10%

Even the 'healthy' Kid's Meal (that is the default combination on the website) doesn't meet all the guidelines of Burger King's future pledge.

The 'healthy' Kid's Meal (pictured above, right) consists of a four-piece Crown-shaped chicken tenders, Mott's strawberry-flavored applesauce, and Hershey's 1% lowfat milk It has 370 calories, 112 calories from fat (30% of calories from fat*), 47 grams carbs, 33 grams sugars (which is 35% of calories from sugars*), 610 mg sodium, 17 grams protein.

Burger King meets the total calorie limit of the guidelines with this meal and is right on the line with their percent of calories from fat, but 35% of calories from sugars exceeds their future pledge guidelines by 20%.

Sure, these meals are no worse than kid's meals offered by other fast food restaurants, but Burger King has promoted their pledge to parents about advertising food to their children.

What will they come up with in the next 79 444 days to meet the standards they've set forth for themselves?

Could the main thrust of this ad campaign be to remind kids of that double-cheeseburger they can get in their Kid's Meal even after January 1, 2008 when they won't be advertising it anymore?

We'll be watching.

*Calculations:
Percent calories from fat: grams of fat multiplied by 9 for calories from fat, then divided by total calories for percentage (based on standard 9 calories per fat gram).
Percent calories from sugars: grams of sugars multiplied by 4 calories for calories from sugars, then divided by total calories for percentage (based on standard 4 calories per gram sugars).

Ronald McDonald's creepy debut

I thought you might enjoy seeing this McDonald's television ad. It is the first appearance by Ronald McDonald, and he's played by long-time Today Show weatherman Willard Scott.

Don't miss the strange tray of food on his head and another attached to his waist (!) where, through the magic of television, burgers magically appear!

I'm not sure he's much less creepy today, but Ronald was certainly creepy back then!

As a modern day contrast you might also want to check out this TV ad from Japan featuring a sexy female 'Ronald' (there's a male version, too.)

So here it is, Ronald McDonald's television debut:

Wendy's social "hot, juicy burgers"

Wendy's new promotion and web site, hotjuicyburger.com, is an attempt at social burger marketing.

The site lets you upload a picture of your face which is then added to a customizable character with a red, Wendy's wig. You also give your character a slogan representing why you should receive free 'hot, juicy burgers' from Wendy's for a year. If people vote on your character/slogan and you receive points. More importantly, from Wendy's point of view, you also receive points when you refer friends to the site by supplying their e-mail addresses.

The site is pretty slick. It's easy to use and it's new and different. This promotion might work out well for Wendy's.

By the way, if you're feeling generous, you can vote for my character and slogan! Just follow the link (you get a custom link when you register) and find my character or your character and click on him/her to vote. That's my character pictured at the top of the post.

via SoGoodBlog and AdRants

Huge photoshopped burger

The fine folks at A Hamburger Today received a 'photo' from a retouching artist in Cincinnati. His employer has a well-known burger chain for a client. If nothing else, it is some great eye-candy, er, eye-beef, for your computer screen. But it also says something about the new, bigger lenses the ad agencies have had to purchase to photograph the bigger and bigger burgers some of the chains are coming up with!

Here's what the creator of this photoshopped image told A Hamburger Today:

I am a retouching artist in Cincinnati. One of our clients is a well-known burger chain. After seeing some of the strangest combos put to bun, I assembled this. The original is six feet tall. It is photoshopped from real sandwich combos.
—Rob in Cincy

McDonald's living salad billboard

McDonald's has followed up their award-winning Chicago "Sundial" billboard with their new "Fresh Salads" billboard, also in the Chicago area.

from ChicagoBusiness.com:

McDonald’s Corp.’s latest effort to promote its health-conscious menu items takes advantage of the saying that the medium is the message.

Green lettuce has been planted to form the words “fresh salads” on a billboard in Wrigleyville near the intersection of Addison and Clark streets to promote its four premium salads.

[McDonald's ad agency's] creative team worked closely with a horticulturalist to create a billboard that could start with 1½-inch spouts and grow into lush leaves. The garden appears to be safe from being plucked apart by birds because there is no place for them to perch and peck.

Wendy's controversial graffiti ad

Wendy's has a new ad that is being shown nationwide in movie theaters. It features graffiti artist "Siloette" spray painting her version of "Wendy" on a communal wall in Phoenix. (Watch the ad below.)

But one public servant isn't happy with the ad. Denver, Colorado City Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz has written a letter to Wendy's asking them to stop running the ad. She wrote, "Please do not make our community efforts to stop graffiti vandalism harder and more expensive than it already is."

Faatz pointed out that the city of Denver will spend over a million dollars on graffiti clean-up this year.

Denny Lynch, senior vice president of communications at Wendy's, said the ad celebrates Sillette's distinct style of art and that other videos in the ad campaign feature other styles of art.

via YouTube and The Denver Post.

McDonald's billboard in Yass

I'm sure this billboard looks perfectly normal to the citizens of Yass in New South Wales, Australia. But the rest of us might wonder what message McDonald's is trying to send....

via Fastfood Weblog

Wendy's red wigs

In other Wendy's news, Wendy's has delivered 5,000 red wigs with ponytails (like the red hair of "Wendy" of the Wendy's logo). The wigs are being worn by employees. There are also cardboard cut-outs that customers can stand under for photos of themselves giving them the red-top look. This is all in advance of a web promotion set to kick-off next week.

KFC's American Idol stunt

It was only a couple months ago that KFC pulled a publicity stunt by announcing they had asked the Pope to bless their new fish sandwich.

Now they're trying to create buzz again by offering American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar a free lifetime supply of (pretty disgusting) KFC Famous Bowls if he dons a bowl hairdo.

KFC President Gregg Dedrick wrote to Sanjaya: “If you don a bowl hairdo during one of your next nationally televised performances, KFC will grant you a free lifetime supply of KFC Famous Bowls. We’re sure America will be as ‘bowled-over’ by your take on this classic look as they are by our KFC Famous Bowls.”

Good grief!

from TV Envy

DQ FlameThrower ad a hit

Dairy Queen has unleashed a new TV ad touting their FlameThrower Grill Burger and the ad is getting rave reviews on YouTube. You can watch it below.

DQ's FlameThrower chicken sandwich comes crispy or grilled or you can get the 1/4 pound or 1/2 pound burger version. They all have pepper jack cheese, 2 slices of jalapeño bacon, tomato, lettuce and DQ's "serious" FlameThrower sauce.

What the ad doesn't mention, of course, is that all these sandwiches (except the grilled chicken version) have high amounts of trans fats (see below).

The 1/2 pound FlameThrower GrillBurger has 1030 calories, 650 calories from fat, 73 g total fat, 23 g saturated fat, 3.5 g trans fat (that's a lot!), 145 mg cholesterol, 2020 mg sodium, 41 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 9 g sugars, 53 g protein.

The 1/4 pound FlameThrower GrillBurger has 780 calories, 490 calories from fat, 54 g total fat, 14 g saturated fat, 3 g trans fat (again, that's a lot of trans fat), 90 mg cholesterol, 1490 mg sodium, 41 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 9 g sugars, 33 g protein.

The Crispy FlameThrower Chicken Sandwich has 840 calories, 510 calories from fat, 56 g fat, 11 g saturated fat, 5.5 g trans fat (that's huge; it's as much as the FDA recommends you have in a day), 100 mg cholesterol, 1860 mg sodium, 51 g carbs, 3 g fiber, 8 g sugars, 33 g protein.

The Grilled FlameThrower Chicken Sandwich has 580 calories, 320 calories from fat, 35 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, no trans fat (because it's grilled), 100 mg cholesterol, 1590 mg sodium, 53 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 7 g sugars, 34 g protein.