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- Burger King makes fast food look soooo heartwarming
Burger King makes fast food look soooo heartwarming
Burger King's 'Bundles of Joy' campaign captures the emotional experience of childbirth by featuring real footage of new mothers enjoying a BK meal post-labour. To connect with their audience even further through this campaign, the brand also set up a hotline offering free Whoppers to new mums.
When I woke up this morning, there were a few things I knew I could expect from the work day.
I'd have my morning meetings, enjoy a lil coffee, meet with a client...
What I didn't expect was to be sitting at my desk tearing up over a Burger King advertisement.
But BK's new campaign has turned me into a sentimental mess.
The video ad starts with the text 'September 26 (The day most babies are born in the UK).'
Ok, nice, we all know about champagne babies—the ones that arrive nine months after New Year's Eve.
Simple, polished. You're left wondering what's next.
And what comes next is real footage of women in labour. There's pain, tears, laughter.
We see brief clips from inside hospital rooms and everything that accompanies waiting for a baby to arrive.
Tubes of laughing gas, brief vlog-style birth updates, and pushing. There's fun music accompanying this, and it's entertaining to watch. It feels so human, like we're on this journey with the families.
Then the music stops and we hear the first cries.
The babies have arrived. (This is when the tears hit me, btw.)
And then the music is back, and we get the satisfying pleasure of watching these tired mums tucking into Burger King.
A delivery to follow their delivery, if you will.
Then there are images of each happy mum, eating their burger with the words 'Arrived at :.'
Burger or baby, it's perfectly ambiguous.
The advert ends by telling us 39% of mums want a burger and fries to be their first post-birth meal.
I can imagine.
So to help out the mums, Burger King created their own hotline.
Yep, they create a bespoke London hotline (called 'The Grill Line') to deliver free Whoppers to brand-new mums. Only on the 26th of September, though.
By going beyond creating an ad and actually setting up the hotline, the brand is showing they really care about providing that feeling of 'Foodfillment.' It's the perfect follow-on from the advertisement itself—they see these new mums, and they want to truly appreciate them.
They're not just using these birthing stories; they're giving back.
They're giving burgers.
Yum.
And the out-of-home posters are sick, too.
Think beautiful, high-quality film photographs of new mums holding their babies, ripping into burgers.
Somewhere on the post are the words 'Arrived at :.'
Again, baby or burger, we just don't know.
And at the very bottom is a small, rather discreet Burger King logo.
Classy.
So... impressive photography and thoughtful copy? Yeah, I've really fallen for this campaign.
Better yet, the campaign fits into the wider Burger King UK marketing strategy.
In April this year, Burger King launched their 'Foodfillment' brand platform.
Which the Burger King UK chief marketing officer described as being all about 'the feeling of ultimate satisfaction' that comes from eating good food.
And what could be more satisfying than devouring a burger post-birth? Not much, I imagine.
So, what can we learn from this sweet, sweet campaign?
Basically, 'Bundles of Joy' works because it's so human.
And they managed to get the tone just right.
Joy, humour and love are all merged to create something just, so... (I'm trying really hard not to say perfect, but I'm thinking it).
So I'd say the main lesson we can learn from this campaign is how effective it can be to tap into something real—a universal experience—and let the humans who have experienced it tell the story.
It shows us how using home footage can be powerful if you do it right.
Because Burger King isn't simply using their new mum's experiences to flog burgers. They're offering a free burger service (albeit for one day of the year) and authentically celebrating the joy of birth.
And they did it well: the video is perfect in tone, and the posters... well, I'm not weird enough to frame one and put it on my bedroom wall.
But perhaps it could live at the office?
-Maggie, Copywriter
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