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Does size matter? Burger King and McDonald’s engage in a battle of the burgers

McDonald’s and Burger King have taken their competition to the streets, with both taking over billboards to prove they are either the king or the biggest.

Take a drive through Kingsland in Auckland and you’ll see a massive McDonald’s billboard reading “Long live the king” with a Big Mac positioned in the middle of it.

It’s a bold statement, especially considering the site was previously occupied by a Burger King billboard. It had made a jab at the Big Mac’s size, with a Big Mac and Whopper side by side, alongside the text “Size Matters”. When shared on social media, Burger King pointed out “Big is a relative term. In this case, it’s relatively small”. This follows Burger King’s response to McDonald’s campaign offering Big Macs all day for a limited time that said Whoppers were available all day for an unlimited time. 

As is often the case, one commenter on the post pointed out the vast difference between the images in the ads and the reality, something McDonald’s fronted up to in an earlier campaign

But should the Whopper really be bringing size into it? StopPress wanted to get to the bottom of it, so we headed to our local drive-thrus and got out the tape measures.

Our incredibly scientific method showed The Whopper was 4.5 inches x 1.5 inches totalling 0.004 m2, while the Big Mac came to 4 inches x 2 inches totalling 0.005m2.

And while taste has yet to be brought into the battle of the burgers, we thought it best to complete a well-rounded assessment of the burgers with a taste test.

Idealog commercial manager Mike Sanders offered up his taste buds and in a close call, the Big Mac came out on top.

The battle of the burgers is a different approach to the one taken by Burger King in 2015 when Burger King global and Y&R NZ challenged McDonald’s to celebrate Peace Day by asking it to join forces and create the ‘McWhopper‘.

The campaign launched with a full-page ‘open letter’ appearing in The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune and invited McDonald’s to participate in the project and check out the website www.mcwhopper.com to view the full proposal and everything from packaging suggestions to recipe ideas.  

Not only did the stunt see Burger King generate plenty of media attention, it earned Y&R NZ a shelf of awards including a Grand Effie at the 2017 North American Effie Awards, a Best in Show at the International ANDY Awards, an Axis Grand Prix and a number of Cannes awards including a Grand Prix.

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