In a world where every brand aims to be true and real—or, in marketing speak, authentic—Burger King is going beyond its recent efforts to position itself as a sustainable quick service restaurant by banning 120 “nonessential, artificial ingredients” from its menu.
The changes, announced today, are not happening all at once. Burger King has slowly been removing artificial ingredients from its menu since 2015, noted CMO Ellie Doty, and the QSR is part of a larger trend upending the food industry.
As Adweek reported back in April, plant-based meat, dairy and even eggs have been gaining ground during the pandemic, as consumers turned to more healthy, eco-conscious diets. Last year, total U.S. retail sales increased to $7 billion, up 27% compared to 2019, according to a new report from the Good Food Institute and the Plant Based Foods Association.
In particular, plant-based meat racked up $1.4 billion in sales in 2020. If anything, that only gives marketers like Burger King an even greater incentive to keep its food “real.”
An Impossible dream becomes reality
The debut of Burger King’s Impossible Whopper, the meatless version of its iconic burger, was initially presented as a quasi-April Fool’s joke. But in August 2019, Burger King began a national rollout of the plant-based burger created with Impossible Foods.
From there, the effort went from social media buzz to being accepted and expected on the part of Burger King consumers.
Taking its health and sustainability mission to the next level, the Moldy Whopper global campaign in 2020 starkly demonstrated that Burger King was done with artificial preservatives. Earlier this year, Burger King released an ad where preservatives were beaten, fried and set on fire.
The decision to remove ingredients that have been a staple for decades is an arduous one. And it usually requires a considerable amount of time to make changes.
“We did extensive guest testing and research to ensure that any changes to our ingredients did not change the flavor profile of the food, so there should be no change in in taste or experience in any way,” said Doty, who was brought in as Burger King’s first-ever North American CMO. “It’s hard to remove preservatives, especially from some ingredients that most commonly do include preservatives like pickles, mayonnaise, ranch dressing.”
Celebrity and brand synergy
As part of the reveal, Burger King is introducing three Keep It Real meals, which were crafted by celebrities using the menu at Burger King.
In a twist to match the message of removing artificial ingredients, the campaign’s stars—rapper Nelly, singer Anitta and TikTok influencer Lil Huddy—are all selling the meals under their real names. The Keep It Real meals will be available Sept. 12 at all Burger King locations nationwide.
The idea of celebrities having their real names on meals boomerangs back to Burger King’s core brand definition: It’s fun, quirky and irreverent. Even reaching back decades ago, when its marketing touted flame broiling rather than using grills, the message was always that it’s simple food made in a way that rivals its fast-food competitors.
“Our brand identity that we work under internally is authenticity of food and people,” Doty told Adweek. “It’s really core to living up to our identity that we would hold ourselves to the highest standard and remove these ingredients in order to live up to authenticity of food and people.”
Burger King will start the marketing campaign Sunday at the MTV VMAs. One of its celebrity meals partners, Anitta, will be performing at the award show.
“Then we’ll have a television ad against each one of the celebrities [and] meals, and our celebrities all have their own unique niche and following that is really relevant with our guests,” Doty said.
