Burger King's Newest Whopper Promotion Trolls Its Competitors

Burger King just came out with a scary new Whopper promotion for Halloween, but you'll need to find the courage to drive by an abandoned restaurant haunted by its flat-top grill. BK's new print advertisements show gloomy images of broken-down fast-food restaurants along with one of two captions: "Beware of places that never flame-grilled" or "Legend has it, they never flame-grilled" (via Muse by Clio). That's right – the ghost restaurants featured in BK's new ads are scary because they never flame-grilled their hamburgers the way Burger King does. If you take a careful look at the old signs and buildings in the images, you can tell BK is calling out McDonald's and Wendy's.

Burger King is using the ad campaign to launch a sort of spooky scavenger hunt. To participate, download the BK app, let it track your location, and drive by one of the five former fast-food restaurants featured in the ads. Let the app know you are at one of the "haunted" restaurants, and get a coupon for a free Whopper. Obviously, this promotion is most convenient for people who live in the five cities where the old restaurants are located: Dayton, Ohio; Houston, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama; McHenry, Illinois; and Johnston, Rhode Island.

The free coupon is available until midnight on Halloween, or whenever all the coupons run out. People who make the special trip to a creepy building to get a free Whopper should also know the coupon expires on November 3, so redeem it quickly! And Burger King urges you not to enter the old buildings. This isn't some sort of "spend the night in a haunted restaurant and see if you can survive" challenge. Besides, you'd be trespassing on private property.

Burger King is encouraging its Twitter followers to get into the spirit of the promotion by asking people to name-drop "the scariest places to go for Halloween." Some people are gamely replying with a photo of McDonald's Golden Arches sign. Another Twitter user got snarky with the reply, "Un-unionized fast food restaurant."

If any Twitter account in the fast-food business is the king of snark, it's one of Burger King's rivals – Wendy's. Seems like Wendy's would be ready with a quick comeback for this "scary places" ad campaign. Maybe something about how Burger King's freezers are haunted with the ghosts of fresh burger patties? Knowing Wendy's Twitter, we can expect some sort of zinger soon. Right now, Wendy's Twitter has its hands full responding to all kinds of complaints about bad experiences customers are having at the chain. Seems like the life of a Wendy's Twitter manager isn't all clever banter and glamour.