The Creative Process

Imagine a group of creative professionals are sitting around a conference room. The boss speaks.

"Okay folks, you've done a great job with your last campaign -- the Creepy King. You scared and chased away 60% of our client's customers. The team at Burger King couldn't be more thrilled with your success and with the record number of restraining orders and pending felony charges against the King. But now, it's time to take it to the next level. How do we top the brilliance of the stalking, Creepy King?"

One guy speaks up, "We could claim we put asbestos in the milk shakes."

People around the table nodded, and the intern puts the idea up on the white board.

Someone else suggest, "What about a campaign around the Indian Burial Grounds underneath each restaurant?"

The group praised that idea, and it, too, went up on the whiteboard.

"You know," said the senior copywriters, "we could tell everyone just how much of a challenge it is to reach each restaurant. We could even promote random closing hours."

"Good," said the boss. "We can work with that. I'm sure Burger King would be thrilled with the random closing hours. Put that up on the board and underline it."

The new, puzzled copywriter looked up, and said, "How about we show how healthy Burger King food is relative to other burger chains, and show how it can bring families together and make life simpler?"

His idea was met with stony silence.

"No," said the boss. "I'm not sure you understand our client."

Finally, the last person to speak, stood up, and said, "Let's keep it simple. The few customers we have left are stubborn and not so bright. Let's just make our best customers look like idiots."

Thus, the Whopper Freakout campaign was born.