Imagine having the same name as a celebrity and spending your whole life being mistaken for them. It would make a good icebreaker at a party, but eventually, you’d probably grow tired of the comparison.
Burger King Germany unearthed four real people who share a name with a major star. Meet Michael Jordan from Bad Kissingen, Steffi Graf from Soltau, Julia Roberts from Brannenburg and Oprah Winfrey from Georgia.
Each of these people are familiar with being regularly mistaken for their famous namesakes. And as experts on clearing up confusion, they are vouching for another item that might be mistaken for something else: Burger King’s plant-based Whopper.
Burger King claims that its plant-based products, developed with food brand The Vegetarian Butcher, taste so similar to the meat versions that they could fool carnivores. The ads feature images of the unfamous Jordan, Graf, Roberts and Winfrey eating a meat-free burger, with the tagline: “More often confused with the original: The Plant-based Whopper.”
The brand is also hosting a giveaway on social media, asking other people who have the same names as celebrities to come forward and share their experiences of mistaken identities. The first 100 submissions will receive a Burger King gift card.
Grabarz & Partner, Burger King’s lead ad agency in Germany, created the campaign.
“When Michael Jordan or Julia Roberts introduce themselves, many people are wide-eyed and totally surprised. We know this also from our guests, who often ask whether their Plant-based Whopper and the original were not mixed up,” Klaus Schmäing, director of marketing at Burger King Germany, said in a statement. “It’s no wonder: they look exactly the same, have the unmistakable taste and (almost) the same names. With our campaign, we play on this risk of confusion in a tongue- in-cheek and creative way.”
Burger King has recently been trying to position itself as a sustainable quick service restaurant as more consumers embrace plant-based eating. Last year, Grabarz & Partner opened Burger King’s first entirely plant-based restaurant as a pop-up store in Cologne, Germany—with a menu of meatless products including plant-based burgers, sandwiches and nuggets.
CREDITS:
Agency: Grabarz & Partner
Client: Burger King Germany
Director of Marketing: Klaus Schmäing
Head of Brand: Danny Wilming
Manager Marketing Communications: Paula Stahlhut
Senior Manager Digital Marketing Communications: Kira Hamer
CCO: Felix Fenz
Group CD: Matthias Preuß
Creative Directors: Eduard Hörner, Sön Becker
Art Directors: Ludwig Neumerkel, Jan Stempfle
Copywriters: Lukas Heeckt, Andrew McEvoy
Account Managers: Wolf Bockelmann, Johannes Ditting
Art Buying: Garnet Matthiesen
Production: Christoph Heller, Marc Janocha, Melanie Marschefski
Photographer (S. Graf, J. Roberts, M. Jordan): Maksim Shdan
Photographer (O. Winfrey): Nina Parker
Research/Photoproduction: Boxx Media, Inc. Herbert Bauernebel
PR Agency: Emanate
Digital Agency: Setup
Media Agency: Vizeum Germany
