Burger King throws more shade on its rivals

Burger King Paraguay’s latest advert, ‘Open Later’, depicts roadside burger purveyors opting for its products instead of their own: the latest in a long line of catty swipes by the brand.

Burger King Paraguay and its creative agency, Garabato MullenLowe’s ‘Open Later’, highlights the brand's commitment to serving customers around the clock, while taking a cheeky jab at its rivals.

The campaign features food truck owners and street food vendors who rely on Burger King for a late-night meal, apparently shunning their own produce, underscoring its dedication to providing hot, tasty meals at any hour.

This collaboration is the latest in a series of campaigns between Burger King Paraguay and Garabato MullenLowe. In 2020, during the mandatory quarantine, they launched the ‘What Do You See?’ campaign, which invited customers to creatively interpret delivery coverage maps on Instagram. Participants transformed these maps into artistic designs, with the most creative entries rewarded with free meals delivered to their homes.

The partnership between Burger King Paraguay and Garabato MullenLowe began in 2020, with the agency tasked with managing the brand's creative strategies and digital communication platforms in the Paraguayan market. Their collaboration has consistently aimed to align local campaigns with Burger King's global branding while maintaining a unique local flavour.

Masters of throwing shade

While burger vans are, as far as we know, a new target for Burger King’s catty ad tactics, the brand has a history of advertising campaigns that playfully target its competitors, particularly McDonald's.

'Burn That Ad', 2019, is fairly peak in terms of its competitive mayhem. The campaign saw Burger King Brazil and agency David São Paulo use augmented reality (AR) technology within the Burger King app, allowing users to virtually ‘set fire’ to competitors' advertisements, such as those from McDonald's, and receive a free Whopper in return.

By pointing their smartphones at rival ads, users could watch them burn away on their screens, revealing a Burger King promotion underneath. Talk about a burn!

'Whopper Detour’, 2018, meanwhile, offered customers a Whopper for just one cent, but with a twist: they had to be within 600 feet of a McDonald's restaurant to claim the deal via the Burger King app. The promotion cleverly directed customers away from McDonald's and towards the nearest Burger King location.

‘Never Trust a Clown', 2017, coincided with the release of the horror film ‘It’. Of course, Burger King Germany and agency Grabarz & Partner couldn’t resist making a clever play on the film's theme, highlighting the creepiness of clowns: a direct jab at McDonald's mascot, Ronald McDonald.