No (real) surprise as Burger King makes surprise switch out of David Miami

It’s the end of an ad era it seems, Burger King has moved its US creative account from David Miami – no more multi-awarded Moldy Whoppers’ – to indie agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul (OKRP.) Saying, according to reports that it’s now eschewing “creative excellence” for “creative effectiveness.”

The move follow the departure of high profile CMO Fernando Machado. WPP’s David, which pitched with Ogilvy, keeps the international business, for now anyway.

BK US president Tom Curtis says; “The team is working to evolve and build on the iconic Burger King brand by optimizing media firepower and modernizing the ‘Home of the Whopper’.”

Optimising media firepower, if it means anything, usually amounts to many more, shorter, digital ads – the route US rival and market leader McDonald’s briefly took with a bespoke DDB unit a few years back. Trouble is, it tends not to work and McDonald’s has a lot more media firepower than Burger King, which spends around $230m annually in the US. PHD has won BK media.

Clients, of course, will always be attracted by more for less (or the same.) A new CMO means an agency is always likely to lose an account no matter what it has achieved in the past.

OKRP may well surprise us and match David via a different approach and it’s always good to see indie agencies winning big accounts.

But creative excellence and creative effectiveness ought to be one and the same oughtn’t they?