I'm pretty proud of this one because it was the "most elaborate advertising flop of the decade (80's)," as stated by Advertising Age magazine. It is from Burger King's "Where's Herb?" campaign from '85-'86. Burger King started randomly asking, "Where's Herb," in their commercials. The customers were suppose to look for Herb, not knowing what he looked liked, and if they found him they would have won $5,000. The fact that they didn't know was to create a debate between people over what Herb looked liked; Burger King only gave hints like, "I'm not Herb because I eat at Burger King." So the customers are suppose to look for Herb but Herb doesn't eat at Burger King, so neither did the customers. The reaction wasn't an exciting curiosity but more of a confused hatred, which lead to small riots in Burger King fighting over who Herb was, because no one had anything better to do in the 80's. After much failure BK revealed that Herb was a nerdy geek in a small suit, taped glasses, and so on. The message that was completely lost on everyone was that Herb was a geek because he never ate a Whooper, most people thought that the message was Burger King was what geeks ate. So Burger King asked the customers to come in, get some food, and try to find someone who doesn't eat there. I would like to believe that Burger King did this just to see if people were dumb enough to do it (fortunately, people were), like an Andy Kaufman act or something, but the fact that they wasted $40 million on it makes me think that they are the dumb ones. Herb might be a geek for not eating at Burger King, but he'll sure as hell live a lot longer than the cool people eating there.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
I'm not Herb
I'm pretty proud of this one because it was the "most elaborate advertising flop of the decade (80's)," as stated by Advertising Age magazine. It is from Burger King's "Where's Herb?" campaign from '85-'86. Burger King started randomly asking, "Where's Herb," in their commercials. The customers were suppose to look for Herb, not knowing what he looked liked, and if they found him they would have won $5,000. The fact that they didn't know was to create a debate between people over what Herb looked liked; Burger King only gave hints like, "I'm not Herb because I eat at Burger King." So the customers are suppose to look for Herb but Herb doesn't eat at Burger King, so neither did the customers. The reaction wasn't an exciting curiosity but more of a confused hatred, which lead to small riots in Burger King fighting over who Herb was, because no one had anything better to do in the 80's. After much failure BK revealed that Herb was a nerdy geek in a small suit, taped glasses, and so on. The message that was completely lost on everyone was that Herb was a geek because he never ate a Whooper, most people thought that the message was Burger King was what geeks ate. So Burger King asked the customers to come in, get some food, and try to find someone who doesn't eat there. I would like to believe that Burger King did this just to see if people were dumb enough to do it (fortunately, people were), like an Andy Kaufman act or something, but the fact that they wasted $40 million on it makes me think that they are the dumb ones. Herb might be a geek for not eating at Burger King, but he'll sure as hell live a lot longer than the cool people eating there.
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2 comments:
Crazy Burger King, I’m going to start asking people where’s Herb, and see if they remember. Nice site very fun to read.
haha typing `i`m not herb` brought me here.
i remember a commercial where they said `here's a picture of herb bowling` with a guy with a bowling ball up to his face.
it was a big joke at our house growing up cuz my dad worked with a guy who's name was actually `herb bowling` lolz.
well, if you can't find herb, you can always `eat a pita` (another lost BK ad campaign)
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