Burger King: Advertising

The Burger King icon, a figure attired in royal robes and crown, first appeared on a sign at the Miami, Florida, Burger King in 1955, and since then has gone through several iterations. In the 1960s the company began to use the character for promotions aimed at children, and paper or plastic crowns were popular giveaway items. Pillsbury dropped the little king logo, replacing it with a massive promotional campaign based on slogans and jingles, such as “Have It Your Way” and “America Loves Burgers and We’re America’s Burger King.” In the 1980s Burger King launched “the Battle of the Burgers,” an advertising campaign that brazenly pitted a BK burger against the McDonald’s equivalent. This strategy did improve its market share vis-à-vis McDonald’s for a time.