BBH’s new ad introduces Burger King’s very own chicken connoisseur — Jim from Wanstead

Chicken shops have inexplicably become a cultural phenomenon: hundreds of thousands of people (yes, really) watch the Chicken Connoisseur touring London “restaurants” in search of the “pengest munch” on YouTube, and then buy the t-shirt and read the book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSD_6ZX1QhU&feature=youtu.be

Burger King is fighting back against the trend for chicken with its own Crispy Chicken Burger, and BBH has done the ad. It all started with a social media competition, asking people to post a video of themselves eating and reviewing an imaginary Crispy Chicken Burger.

Jim from Wanstead’s effort was good enough to win him £20,000 and the chance to appear in BBH’s ad, which rather charmingly juxtaposes American advertising hyperbole with the more prosaic real life experience of an East London branch of Burger King.

BBH did a mostly very good job with KFC for 15 years (before it went to Mother last year), so it’s pleasing to see that the agency’s fast food creative chops are not going to waste. BBH was awarded the Burger King business without a pitch earlier this year, after the UK franchise was bought by private equity group Bridgepoint Capital.

Ian Heartfield, CCO at BBH London, said: “We were in the lap of the gods as to who would come forward to try BK’s new chicken burger. Luckily for us the competition delivered us Jim from Wanstead. His soundbites are worth the 20K prize alone.”

The ad does a good job of selling the new burger, so let’s hope Burger King has got its chicken supply chain sorted.

MAA creative scale: 7