The Whopper has been discontinued forever. That’s what Burger King told their regular customers. It’s a campaign to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of their popular burger. The company took the Whopper off the menu as part of a research to understand what role the product plays in people lives. The reactions of the customers were filmed with a hidden camera and can be seen in several TV ads and a longer video posted online:

www.whopperfreakout.com

Suzanna Vranica from ‘The Wall Street Journal’ explains:
“The videotaped hoax was a twist on a market research technique called “deprivation research,” in which marketers measure how loyal consumers are to a brand or product by taking it away from them. The insight gained helps marketers design new marketing and ad ploys that will resonate better with consumers.”

Brilliant if you ask me. Burger King isnt airing just another Whopper commercial, instead they used an experiment as a commercial and an eight-minute online video. Burger King claims it helped to sell burgers.

There were some challenges for this hidden camera experiment:
“All the consumers who walked into the stores during the experiment had to be chased down afterward to sign release forms so they could be shown in the video and ads. Not everyone could be caught in time. One irate consumer who demanded Burger King’s “corporate number” to call in his complaint was so upset he jumped in his pickup truck and drove off. Crispin was forced to keep the footage under wraps.
“His reaction was great. We are still looking for the guy,” says Rob Reilly, Crispin’s co-chief creative officer.”

Vranica, Suzanne: ‘Hey, No whopper on the menu?!’, in: Wall Street Journal, Feb 8th 2008, p B3.