On Wednesday morning, Burger King took out full-page ads in both the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune to propose a one-day-only truce with rival burger chain McDonald’s in order to open a pop up store in Atlanta (halfway between McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago and Burger King’s headquarters in Miami) that would sell a creation called “The McWhopper.” The McWhopper would feature traits of both sandwiches, and the store itself would be manned by employees from both McDonald’s and Burger King, and would also be co-branded.
Why the sudden change of heart? The day of the proposed pop up would fall on September 21, which the United Nations have designated as the International Day of Peace, and all sales proceeds would go to the nonprofit Peace One Day.
In an open letter on the newly established McWhopper.com, Burger King writes to McDonald’s:
Peace One Day is a non-profit organization campaigning to make Peace Day September 21st an annual day of global unity. They have a powerful rallying call ‘who would you make peace with?’ which inspired us to lead by example and extend an olive branch of our own. We’d like to propose a one-off collaboration between Burger King and McDonald’s to create something special – something that gets the world talking about Peace Day.
So far, McDonald’s has declined to comment. This is a pretty brilliant move on Burger King’s hand. Not only are they drumming up publicity for themselves and a charitable organization, but they’re going to make McDonald’s look really, really crappy if they don’t take the bait.
Burger King has also put together a video to demonstrate exactly how a McWhopper would work:
https://youtu.be/DsaUuIj6Xb0
(Via the New York Times)
