Have you ever lined up for instant meals and notion, “Gosh, wouldn’t it’s tremendous if I 
ought to order something that pondered my mood at this second in time?”
Me neither. But permit’s think about Burger King’s new advertising marketing campaign for a moment before we brush aside it as flame-grilled nonsense for hungry millennials.
This week, the agency unveiled a brand new line of “Real Meals.” Available in pick out markets, those “Real Meals” are essentially Whopper combinations — burger, fries, and drink — that are available in boxes emblazoned with, um, a “style of moods.”
It’s as though Nike advertised a brand new line of pass-trainers for the glum. Or Ikea released a special-edition Billy bookcase for self-hating hoarders and conflicted percent rats.
So permit’s say you just give up your new activity due to the fact your boss is a maniac, one of the situations in Burger King’s new #FeelYourWay advert. Well, now you may sidle up to the counter and inform the minimal-salary cashier you want the, ahem, “Pissed Meal.”
Or maybe you’re uninterested and defiant about classmates scrawling “skank” for your locker, some other scene inside the advert. Well, in case you’re also feeling peckish, order the “DGAF Meal.”
Perhaps you’re stressed about your student mortgage or the chance of in no way transferring out. So fill your stomach with the “Blue Meal.”
Sick and bored with judgmental passersby providing you with facet-eye due to your fame as a teenager mother? All you need is “Salty” or “YAAS” food.
All of that is greater proof the world has gone the other way up.
I’m reluctant to char Burger King too significantly nowadays, typically due to the fact the said goal is noble. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. So Burger King is hoping to devour away at the stigma around intellectual health troubles, one Whopper at a time. It wants clients to comprehend it is familiar with “no person is happy all of the time.”
But that’s no longer searing perception — it’s a reasonably-priced shot at McDonald’s. And beyond this company trolling of a competitor’s “Happy Meal,” the messaging is likewise unluckily dubious.
Burger King is now receiving kudos for this initiative. But do human beings now not comprehend all we are genuinely dealing with here is PACKAGING? It’s nuts. Burger King is claiming 5 new menu gadgets designed to strengthen social awareness while, in fact, all it’s doing is selling old-school Whopper combos in distinct packing containers this month.
“Real Meals” is the fake news of rapid food.
First of all, irrespective of which meal you order, what you get is exactly identical. There aren’t any varying substances or peripherals tailor-made for your “mood.” If you order the Pissed Meal, it does no longer include a beneficial brochure on anger management. The Blue Meal isn’t always laced with Prozac or wrapped with a 1-800 quantity to a suicide prevention hotline. The DGAF combination does not include sociological literature on the lengthy-range benefits of really giving an eff.
So the best aspect “Real Meals” does is remind you of how you’re feeling.
And in case you’re gorging on fast meals, you’re probably not feeling extremely good.
If you’re “pissed,” cramming a burger down your throat whilst watching the word “pissed” is not likely to make you sense any much less “pissed.” If something, you’ll sense extra “pissed,” because you are now stewing interior a gustatory feedback loop. And telling the people at the following desk you’re feeling “Salty” is a recipe for misunderstanding.
So this isn’t always approximately customer moods. It’s approximately marketing and income.
If Burger King genuinely wanted to assist enhance mental health, it’d begin promoting nothing but corn and broccoli. Nutrition is vital to how each person feels. If even the maximum jovial character ate not anything however Whoppers or Big Macs for the subsequent six months, his mood could worsen.
Put it this manner: Donald Trump loves fast food. It’s all he eats. Do you want to be like Donald Trump?
Of course “nobody is glad all of the time,” Burger King. And of the route, it’s important to “hold it real” with regards to emotional fitness. But sitting under fluorescent lighting fixtures at the same time as tucking into empty calories that telegraph your kingdom-of-mind isn’t any manner to chase down the Zen of self-actualization.
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