Clearly Burger King understands its primary target (18-34 year old men or superfans as they call them) and they have created a bunch of campaigns which are intended to appeal directly to them. The campaigns are edgy, sexually charged and exhibit a comedy that is surreal, slightly subversive, and self-reflective. I would agree this sounds on brief for the audience but I wonder- is Burger King risking all its other segments to seal the deal with their target audience?

It is a good idea to segment your audience. It is a good idea to understand who your most valuable customers are. It is also a good idea to target that segment with unique, relevant and timely marketing. However segment specific marketing campaigns, while different, need to adhere to the overall brand personality and compliment each other.

According to the NPD Group, between May 2008 and 2009 Burger King experienced:

I guess BK has the financial model that proves out the profitability of Superfans because if these results are only because of the rising popularity of the Quick Serve segment in general (5% growth overall during the same period), BK will have a difficult time rebuilding the family aspect of their brand.

Check out some of the more spectacular BK marketing mis-steps below:

Ass Worship 

This widely criticized Square Butts campaign makes some sense for superfans but promoting the kids meal?

Anger

The Angry Whopper campaign (from Toronto agency Taxi 2)  includes radio, TV and online ads that direct to a micro-site that encourages users to shout as loudly as they can into their web cam in the hope of winning a free Whopper.  “Let’s see how full of rage you are,” it says. You can also send an Angry-Gram to let somebody know “they annoy the hell outta you.” Insults include: 

• You love yourself so much you would reply to your own personal ad.
• You are bitchier than a school bus of hormonal cheerleaders.
• Why do you always read my email? It’s like you are working for the FBI.

Pretty weak stuff but again it proves successful. The last time BK brought out the Angry Whopper in Canada it sold above expectations.

Masturbation

In 2007  Bleublancrouge Montreal took the double entendre to an interesting place with the Pleasure Yourself poster in the Metro, creating a mini-scandal for the brand.

Fellatio 

Burger King’s representatives in Singapore, Bon Foods, ran this campaign which is getting attention from critics everywhere.

Between the copy managing to slip the word ’blow’ in twice, the strategic use of mayo and the model’s “omigoodness” look, the Super Seven Incher makes the Angry Burger spots barely capable of causing mild heartburn.  

Nudity

In the good old US of A, where family values rule, Burger King has turned to ad agency, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky who are well known for edgy, attention grabbing ads. They worked on the campaign for Flame, a body spray inspired by The King.

 The body spray has it’s own micro-site as well, Fire Meets Desire, where users are given the opportunity to click a virtual bottle of “Flame.”  Each time you do, it sprays and reveals a new romantic image, culminating in this wonderfully erotic picture of The King:

This product is real and you can order it here for about $4.

Virgins

Another Crispin Porter & Bogusky campaign, Whopper Virgins had a production crew sent to remote places to conduct “Whopper-vs-Big Mac” taste tests among people who had never heard of a hamburger. The web documentary featured ‘virgins’ trying burgers for the first time and while some preferred Big Macs and one Greenland tester saying he preferred his native seal meat, Whoppers were the big winners.

Criticism was rampant againg including The Chicago Tribune headlined the campaign as a supersize flop and Adweek columnist Barbara Lippert suggested the ads were “culturally tone-deaf.”

Too Risky? 

I would love to hear from people – do you think BK risks it’s entire brand on this kind of marketing or are they brilliantly catering to Superfans?

Our system is not perfect. It is bloated and inefficient. Canadians report waiting up to 5 times longer than Americans for elective surgeries. With our current system, healthcare has to be rationed in some form as there are only so many doctors and so many MRIs to go around. This rationing typically exhibits as wait times. Hospitals with inadequate financing and overcrowding are also common stories. Doctors in rural areas are hard to get and seniors, especially diabetics, report eroding services as one of their primary concerns. Doctor’s strikes, once unimagined, are much more common as they seek higher fee scales. Patients are increasingly being asked to pay above and beyond for private rooms and other supplemental services.

It is this contradiction to Medicare’s (sorry, the Canada Health Act’s)  founding philosophy that makes discussions of reform so difficult to do. Despite economists from both sides of the political spectrum presenting financial models that our system as it currently is constructed is unsustainable, few pols want to discuss the inevitable correlation between service levels and how we will pay for what we want. We all want excellent care but don’t want to pay more or higher taxes.

It is as if by suggesting we merely look at other options or discuss any alternative models that we are choosing to abandon universal care. Why can’t reform elements such as treating patients as assets rather than cost centres be part of the discussion? As it is now hospitals are given a set budget and as more patients come through the door, each essentially gets progressively less of the pie. Why can’t we discuss intelligent ways to pay hospitals for each person they treat and incentivize care quality? After all this is our money and our healthcare at stake. Why can’t we strive for universal healthcare that is both cost effective and high quality?

With this in mind, the vitriolic criticism about government sponsored health care one can hear in the current American media is a little bewildering. Almost every other modern country in the world has moved to a federally managed healthcare system and not one country who has initiated a single-payer government-run health system has moved back to privatization. According to a report from the Fraser Institute both the Canadian and U.S. governments spend about 7 percent of their GDPs on health-care costs. But when you include U.S. private healthcare expenditures that number balloons to about 16 percent. Put another way The United States spends more in total dollars, percentage of GDP, and per capita than every other country in the world on health care all while being the single largest reason for American bankruptcy and leaving some 40 to 50 million or so Americans (depends on whose figures you prefer) without coverage. As well despite reports to the contrary Canadians are covered for all medical care, plus some prescription drug costs and have complete freedom to choose their physicians. Canadians live on average more than two years longer than Americans, and have similar or better rates of survival after cancer diagnoses.

So while Canadians have better healthcare than many Americans we shouldn’t use that as an excuse not to strive for better and to demand Ottawa keep a dialog about reform going.

What does this collection of trivia have to do with anything? Not a lot other than I was reading about sage, growing sage and being informed I was growing sage all within a couple of days. Coincidence? Random occurrence? It doesn’t really matter because I love these strange intersections of seemingly unrelated events and the act of relating them. The lesson from my sage discovery is that sometimes the universe offers up the information you need when you need it. I needed to know my basil was sage before I ruined a pasta sauce.

It may be fanciful to suggest the universe cares about what I need but I also try to make chances for the universe to provide me with info by absorbing information from as many sources as possible. This has been very useful to me as I work to solve problems for my clients and in my own life because inspiration can come from the sources you least expect. The mind, as they say, works in mysterious ways and oft time creative answers to nagging problems come from unusual sources.

I would like to be able to tell you I have actively cultivated this information collection methodology but the truth is I am just a nomad wandering through the vast wilderness of information available today randomly picking up anything that seems interesting. With that in mind though, since realizing this practice is quite useful, I have worked to keep it up and I encourage others to try it out. As a marketer it is easy to get tunnel vision and only consume marketing related information. What I have found though is that I end up seeing and reading many takes on the same ideas. This doesn’t mean the material isn’t valuable but that I can afford to consume less marketing info and still be as informed all while leaving time to expand my information pool.

Here are some ideas that might be useful to help you expand your information pool:

• Try a news source that offers more context and commentary rather than just headlines and breaking news. I like The Christian Science Monitor and The Walrus to name two.
• Waste a little time. See what the worlds of sport, gossip and pop culture are up to.
• Watch documentaries. PBS, National Geographic, CBC, TVO – these are just some of my favorite places to watch television which is both entertaining and thought provoking.
• Ask people what they are reading, watching, surfing and discussing with friends and family and make the effort to look up some of their suggestions.

Expanding your information pool will help you to explore new ideas and may even help you prevent problems before they happen. It certainly helped make sure my sage infused pork wouldn’t cause hallucinations or other unintended conscious-expansion.

I will continue to blog about the unintended impact of colliding ideas.

I love this answer for a couple of reasons. One, who can’t appreciate the chain of logic which sees the elimination of the school as the key to not having to go. This is pure reasoning at its best. The other reason I love this answer is because though it isn’t the best solution to the problem, it is highly creative. Too often when faced with problem solving we are conditioned to exclude ideas which we think can’t work. This selective filtering prevents us from truly exploring creative solutions and hampers the process.

As ridiculous as it may sound, when we brainstorm we need to include everything, including the ‘crush the school’ ideas. Brainstorming can be done in many different ways but there are four basic ideas which should be followed:

1. Get as many ideas down as possible. Don’t worry about the feasibility or quality.
2. No judgment. Brainstormers are encouraged to suspend criticism and instead focus on getting as many ideas out as possible.
3. Encourage ‘crush the school’ ideas. Radical and ridiculous ideas may provide new ways of thinking about a problem and encourage better ideas.
4. Group and combine ideas to create better ideas.

Once the crazy ideas are allowed to see the light of day, some of them stop looking so crazy and start looking like solutions.

Today I have a list of 5 stories which made me think but I am not sure what the greater context they uncover is. I am looking for ideas so if you look at my list and the theme seems obvious - make a comment and share it with the Lightbulb in a Thought Balloon community.

5 things this week that made me go, hmmm…

1. Booker T. from legendary Booker T and the MGs has a new record out called Potato Hole. The Drive-By Truckers and Neil Young guest as his back up band and it features covers of Outkast and The Drive-By Truckers. The weird thing is his name is Booker T. Jones. Jones?? Why didn’t he go by Booker J? Did the guys in the MGs know another Booker Jones and so he went by Booker T? This makes no sense to me
2. Shakira is back. I don’t know the name of her new single but I am pretty sure it’s her and it’s new. Where the hell has she been?
3. Queen Elizabeth appointed former PM Jean Chrétien to the Order of Merit. The award, founded in 1902 by King Edward VII, is given to “individuals of exceptional distinction in the arts, learning, sciences and other areas such as public service”. He retired six years ago – so why now?
4. The 14 week taxi strike in Windsor ends with a deal. After 14 weeks without cabs – maybe they just don’t need ‘em?
5. The US deficit reached $1 trillion. A trillion is a million million or a 1 followed by 12 zeroes.

Bernie’s recent comments, while wildly inappropriate, are certainly no slip of the tongue. Comments stating he didn’t intend to invoke Hitler’s name and “…I got dragged into something I wasn’t supposed to discuss…” just don’t ring true. After all this is the man who is widely credited with turning F1 into the multi-million dollar business it is today.

Instead this is a calculated move designed to both remind the 8 teams who threatened to form a breakaway series that F1 is not a democracy and to get the media glare off of F1’s current infighting. Despite many Jewish organizations calling for a boycott of this weekend’s German Gran Prix at Nurburgring as well as for Bernie’s resignation, the likely outcome for his comments is nothing. The attention called to Bernie doesn’t weaken his position as F1 Supremo and Bernie himself has said calls for him to resign come from people without the “power to say these things”.

Despite FOTA and FIA reaching an agreement for the future rules of F1, it is an uneasy truce which is expected to breakdown if Mosley stands for re-election as FIA president. Although Ecclestone also called for Mosley to stand down, Max is still his guy and isn’t about to let FOTA flex any new found muscle they might think they may have developed by dancing on Mosley’s grave or promoting their first audience survey. The only thing Bernie wants less than FOTA’s confidence is the media and fans talking about it and what better way to ensure that then to provide a big controversial distraction.

As it is, F1 is not winning many fans these days. The drivers have become too press trained and as a result have lost any sense of character. TV is a mixed bag with ITV’s brutal announcers and too much footage of the race leader’s big lead while missing entertaining back marker battles. Overtaking is rare and the courses which allowed for it are being dropped from the schedule. With Jensen Button and Sebastian Vettal as this years only winners so far, the oft promised race day parity has not arrived. Add up all these factors and Bernie has a lot to lose if the specter of a rival series raises its head again.

So while Bernie’s comments are unacceptable and border on anti-Semitic, I am not convinced they were accidental or part of a prejudicial agenda. Instead they are Bernie doing what Bernie does best – protecting his interests in F1.

When thinking of fad products, the Hula Hoop is top of mind. In 1958, after only four months on the market, Wham-O sold 25 million Hula Hoops in the United States and over 100 million globally. As interest waned, Wham-O eventually stopped manufacturing the toy – that is until 1965 when they inserted ball bearings in the cylinder to make the whoosh sound. That helped revive interest in the Hula Hoop, which still makes money for Emeryville-based Wham-O. The privately held company declines to reveal Hula Hoops sales numbers but I think it is safe to say the Hula Hoop is undeserving of it’s reputation as the ultimate fad item.

Comparatively Twitter is a little less popular. Unique monthly visitors hit roughly 6 million in February 2009 and March 2009 saw 19.1 million visitors for Twitter.com. It is worth noting though Twitter is doing it’s best to catch up – visitors to the site represent a 3,000% gain as compared to a year ago.  To quote directly from a Com Score blog post by Andrew Lipsman on May 12, 2009 – “In fact, the past two months have seen such a flood of traffic to Twitter.com that it has more than quadrupled its audience during that brief period of time, literally unprecedented growth for a site whose audience already numbers in the millions.”

So it seems there may be a little ways for Twitter to go but at this rate, in 50 years it may be the next Hula Hoop.

Each year on November 11, our school would gather at the local war memorial and remember those who had fallen in wars. Although I am sure some of those November days must have been sunny, I consistently remember gray skies and cold drizzle. Old men in wheelchairs wearing uniforms and heavy wool blankets on their laps would take the stage, rarely speaking. Instead fifes and drums would play as we shifted uncomfortably, fidgeting with plastic poppies trying to be respectful but not really understanding. Once a year I would think about the soldiers from our community but most other days, the memorial was just another fixture in my small town existence.

More recently the  Highway of Heroes has renewed my experience with war memorials. Each time I see the road side signs or hear of a repatriation service spontaneously encouraging people to go to bridges and overpasses to pay their respect, I am struck by how appropriate the highway is as a memorial. These experiences cause me to remember the people fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq even though those wars are mostly media events for me. I remember that people, mostly young people, are fighting around the world everyday. I don’t want to make too much of a point about sacrifice or patriotism. I have met a lot of soldiers and I have found them to not be necessarily more patriotic or sacrificial than the rest of us. What they are is brave and realistic. They take a job that many of us could not or would not do, which they know will send them to difficult places and they do it. No more and certainly no less. We need to be reminded what they are doing.

Map of the Fallen  as a modern cenotaph takes the memorial experience one layer deeper. I found myself scrolling through the maps and looking for soldiers from Southwestern Ontario. I don’t really know why other than by looking for local soldiers helped me to better connect to events I don’t really understand. I appreciate that Map of the Fallen doesn’t make me feel like a  rubber-necker but rather gives me a sense of the real people fighting overseas. I can see where they fell but also and more importantly, where they lived.

I am frequently on the look out for ways to intersect my online experiences with those off-line, but this one snuck up on me. Driving down the Highway of Heroes reminds me that the while I am not personally impacted by war today, many are. Using Map of the Fallen helps make that experience specific and memorable. Will I look at Map of the Fallen everytime I hear a news report about Iraq or Afghanistan or use the 401?

I doubt it - but I will remember and I think that is exactly what memorials are supposed to do.

Map of the Fallen is a blog and project of Sean Askay that “uses Google Earth to honor the more than 5,700 American and Coalition servicemen and women that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan…will connect you with each of their stories—you can see photos, learn about how they died, visit memorial websites with comments from friends and families, and explore the places they called home and where they died.”

The 401 from Trenton, Ont., to Toronto was renamed the Highway of Heroes in 2007 to honour Canada’s fallen soldiers.

If you are interested in word clouds, please visit www.wordle.net and give it a try.

Cheers…Chris

Lightbulb moments are when you have sudden realisation about something – like a lightbulb representing an idea in a cartoon. This space is going to explore some of those realisations and try to create a conversation about them.

For the time being I am going to be purposefully eclectic however I imagine over time some themes will emerge. I will likely touch a little on politics (Canadian specifically but maybe the world too), sports (mostly hockey and F1 but I am interested in many), and business (I am a marketer but I have a passing interest in other departments too). I will touch on other things too but I will have to wait and see what realisations cause my lightbulb to go on.

I don’t have expectations per se however I would like to get some of my friends involved and see if they will join me on some of the podcasts. I would really like it if people listen and maybe even have someone contact me and to be a guest on the podcast too.

I don’t know if I want to go as far as to say lightbulb moments can change our lives but I do think they can help make life more interesting.

Cheers…Chris