Whopper, Whopper, Whopper, Whopper. Junior, Double, Triple Whopper…

There’s little doubt that this song has been stuck in your head once or twice over the last few months–or, in my case, pretty much every weekend.

Burger King unveiled their new Whopper jingle and blasted the country with it in late 2022, specifically targeting NFL fans, as you can’t get through a primetime football game without hearing it (and annoyingly singing along with it) each week.

And considering the NFL regular season pulled in 185 million viewers this year, that’s a lot of ears that have been subjected to this jingle…or torture, depending on which side of the fence you’re on.

Burger King’s Whopper Song: Annoying or Genius?

Burger King’s new Whopper jingle wasn’t something that was hatched out of thin air one day. It’s part of a much larger “Reclaim the Flame” campaign, a $400 million investment in not only marketing and advertising, but also digital investments as well as “technology, kitchen equipment, building enhancements, and remodels/relocations.”

There’s definitely a love/hate relationship between this song and the general public, though. There are plenty of people that find it annoying as all get out, that’s for sure. I can guarantee you’ve been around someone that has said, “make it stop,” as soon as the commercial starts.

But that’s kind of the genius behind it…isn’t it?

The getting stuck in your head part of this song is genius–because it makes you think of Burger King.

The hating of the song by people is genius–because it makes you think of Burger King.

The making fun of this song across social media is genius–because it makes you think of Burger King.

An advertising campaign can simultaneously be annoying and genius, just like Kanye West. In fact, I’d argue that some of the most effective marketing campaigns are both.

TikTok Continues To Spread The Whopper Song

Quickly going back to that aforementioned point on social media, although it may have not been intentional, Burger King is also harnessing the power of virality across social media with this jingle.

One of the best things right now for a music artist is for their song to become a dance or be heavily used in videos on TikTok. If this happens, the song almost immediately becomes a hit and is played all over the country, and it doesn’t even have to be a new song; in fact, we’ve seen songs from 20+ years ago be revived simply because of them going viral on TikTok.

All of this is just additional exposure for Burger King, and it’s absolutely free. Yes, they’re spending plenty of money to blast this jingle and commercial out on regular television, but every time it’s used on a platform such as TikTok, they’re just getting more bang for their buck, and not paying a dime for it.

Measuring the Advertising Effectiveness of the Whopper Song

The nearly half a billion “Reclaim the Flame” investment has one goal in mind: to increase Burger King’s market share in the fast food world. The only way to measure that is by looking at the sales data. And I’ll tell you what: it would be surprising if this campaign doesn’t show its effectiveness soon.

Think about it this way: if 20 million people heard the Burger King jingle each week, and half of a percent of them decided, “You know what, a Whopper sounds pretty good right now,” that would equal 100,000 extra sandwiches sold–and that’s just if those people bought one sandwich alone. Nevermind the food their family wants, or anything extra that is added to the order (because who orders one Whopper and one Whopper only when they go to Burger King?).

The next earnings release date for Restaurant Brands International (which owns Burger King, among many other restaurants) is scheduled for February 14, 2023. It will be very interesting to see how big of an impact this “Reclaim the Flame” campaign made in Q4 of 2022. I’d bet we see a significant increase in Whopper sales.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I went through Burger King just a couple of days ago–for the first time in over a year–and a major reason why is because of the new Whopper song being stuck in my head since the middle of September.

Love it or hate it, this is one of the most effective advertising campaigns in recent memory.

Whopper, Whopper, Junior Whopper…..