Burger King Advert Assessment

By Khadijat Oyeleye

The Burger King Manthem

•The song “Manthem” is based on the song “I Am Woman” by Helen Reddy. The original lyrics are about women being strong, powerful and independent. This can be seen when she says “I am woman, hear me roar”. When she says “I am woman”, it shows us that she isn’t just a woman; she is woman and is therefore stronger than one person standing on their own. Saying “hear me roar” makes the audience think of lions which means that women are leaders because lions are commonly known as the kings of the jungle.

•The purpose of the song is to show men that women are strong and they don’t have to rely on men to accomplish things in life. This makes Helen Reddy a reformer because she wants the position of women in society to change; women should be viewed as superior and not inferior. This therefore makes “I Am Woman” a feminist song.

•Burger King changed the song to show men that it is okay to be the traditional man. This means that they don’t need to care about the clothes they wear and what they look like; they can eat what they want and do what they want (they don’t need to be the modern man and care about health an beauty).

•The Burger King Manthem will appeal to men because men will no longer have to attempt to be something they’re not as they can live up to the original stereotype of men being ignorant.

The Technique Used to Advertise BK Burgers

•The main technique used in the BK advert is humour. This is because the men in the advert were being quite foolish- they were throwing a car off a building and they were ripping their pants off. This makes them seem childish but they’re living up to the stereotype of the traditional man. This is because the traditional man doesn’t care about the opinions of other people; he is apathetic. Therefore, he doesn’t see the need to be something he’s not (smartly dressed and distinguished).

•The use of a stereotype is what makes the advert funny because the stereotype is being exaggerated. This can be seen when the men are ripping their pants off and throwing them into a fire- this wouldn’t normally happen in reality.

•This advert would appeal to people in the demographic groups E-C2 (Unskilled- plumbers, builders). The reason for this is because some of the men in the advert were working as builders so men who work as builders in reality would enjoy seeing how their job is mocked. This is because traditional men like to mock others so as a result they will find the BK advert funny as it is a way for them to make fun of other people.

• The psychographic groups which are being targeted are the aspirer and the explorer.  The aspirer because in the advert, BK has a crowd of fans and aspirers like popularity. This means that people who eat BK burgers will get many friends. However, the aspirer won’t like  the advert because they care a lot about their appearance so due to the childish behaviour of the men in the advert, they will believe the BK won’t make them look sophisticated so they won’t eat the burgers. The  reason why the explorer  is being targeted is because explorers like to try new things so if they see a new burger advertised, they will want to try it.

The Representation of Females

•The females featured in the advert are the supporters and the cheerleaders. They are also the “reward”. The reason why they are the cheerleaders and supporters is because some of them are standing at the side cheering the men on and the purpose of a cheerleader is to support and motivate.

•The women in the commercial are wearing tight pink tracksuits, short cheerleading outfits and figure-hugging dresses. The clothes they are wearing make them fit into the following stereotypes: The glamorous assistants, “eye candy”, girly and weak. This is because the glamorous assistants are only there to make the leading male look good and pink is quite a girly colour which in turn makes them look very feminine. The reason they are “eye candy” is because they are wearing short and/or tight clothes which show their feminine form.

•The women in the advert are meant to symbolise rewards. This can be seen in the below picture where a woman wearing a tight pink tracksuit is tempting a man dragging a very heavy object behind him with a BK burger. This shows that once the man gets the burger, he will also get the girl, thus making her the reward.

• The females in the advert are marginalised because they do not have an important role- they are the background characters and/or the assistants. This means that the only reason they are in the advert is to support the men and to look weak while doing so.

•The advert could appeal to women who are rebellious. This is because they won’t like being told that they can’t eat the burger so to prove to men that they can also eat the burger, they will eat the burger in order to prove a point. On the other hand, the advert wouldn’t appeal to female reformers and feminists. This is because reformers want change and equality so they won’t like the men showing that they are the better gender. This advert wouldn’t appeal to feminists because they wouldn’t like the idea of women being portrayed as weak.

The Psychographic Profiles

•The psychographic profiles being targeted are the explorer, the aspirer and the struggler. The explorer is being targeted because explorers like trying new things and if they see a new burger being advertised, they will want to try it. This is because they like discovery and the tasting of that BK burger will be the discovery of a new flavour. The aspirer is being targeted because aspirers care a lot about their status. As the men eating their burgers had many friends, the aspirer would feel like trying the burger because then they’d believe that by eating the BK burger they’d gain friends and therefore, popularity/status. The struggler is being targeted because burgers are a form of junk food and strugglers eat mainly junk food as they don’t feel the need to think about what the impact of too much junk food can do to the body.

•This advert promotes stereotypes because the stereotypes being presented in the advert are the strong, traditional man and the fragile woman. This shows that the reformers are definitely not the target audience because reformers want change and equality which means that they will feel annoyed that BK are not presenting men and women as equals; men are presented as superior and women are presented as inferior.

Social Class

•The main male in the advert is wearing a shirt with rolled-up sleeves and the top button undone, while the other people in the restaurant are wearing smart, formal clothing such as dresses and suits. If the main male is compared to the waiter, we will be able to tell that even the waiter is of higher class than the customer as the waiter is wearing a crisp white shirt with smart black trousers. We can tell from the rolling up of the main male’s sleeves that he is prepared to eat with his hands because people normally roll up their sleeves when they are about to get their hands dirty/messy. The other people in the restaurant aren’t taking such precautions as they are prepared to eat with knives and forks.

•When the main male gets served, he sees only a minimal portion of food arranged elegantly on his plate. When he sees this, he looks disappointed with the size of the food and the type of food. He then immediately stands up which tells us that he is annoyed with the slight portion of food arranged delicately on his plate.

•We can tell he feels uncomfortable in the restaurant because when he sees the small portion of food, he stands up and leaves the restaurant. This tells us that he may have felt embarrassed that he was the only person dressed like he was going to get his hands dirty- he’s wearing casual clothing while everyone else is wearing formal clothing. This means that everyone else was prepared to eat with the etiquette required when eating in a professional setting.

•From this, we can see that the man would probably prefer to eat a burger because rolled-up sleeves indicate that a person is ready to eat with their hands so they don’t want to get their sleeves dirty.

•In conclusion, the social class of BK burgers is middle class and lower class. One of the reasons for this is the fact that upper class people prefer to eat in distinguished restaurants (like the one shown in the advert) as they are rich and therefore have a lot of money to spend on expensive food. This also tells us that they are in the social classes of B-A as these are the people who earn the most amount of money out of all the social classes so they will be able to afford the food . This means that these sophisticated people will frown upon the idea of eating in a fast food restaurant with their hands as many rich people don’t like to get their hands dirty. This shows us that  they will be just as uncomfortable as the casually dressed man eating in the classy restaurant because they will be out of their element as they will be dining within an environment that is unfamiliar to them (upper class- haute cuisine restaurants, middle class- fast food restaurants).