Burger King: Milkshake

`Milkshaking` in Scotland…

With the European elections around the corner and Brexit being the hot topic – a new form of protest emerged: the act of dousing right-wing politicians in milkshake – also known as Milkshaking.

When Nigel Farage went on the campaign trail to Edinburgh, a photo began circulating on Twitter seemingly showing a poster in the window of a McDonalds stating they wouldn’t be selling milkshakes that day.

We crafted a simple but powerful response to McDonalds announcement.

We tweeted a simple, tongue-in-cheek response to McDonalds – letting the people of Scotland know that they we would still be selling milkshakes all weekend.

Dear People of Scotland.
We’re selling milkshakes all weekend.
Have Fun.
Love Burger King.
#JustSaying

Milkshakes became THE trending conversation in the UK.

Within 24 hours we saw 110k likes, over 8.9m impressions, 350k engagements on Twitter… and a national debate on the humble milkshake. We saw positive conversation across social from the most unusual Burger King ambassadors like Caitlin Moran and Owen Jones.

We appeared in every national newspaper and every major news broadcaster – including comedy segments on Have I Got News For You, Mock The Week and The Ranganation – where the tweet was shown on screen and read in full and discussed.

Burger King was celebrated once again for being reactive, witty and on the mark with social and public sentiment – even Nigel Farage himself was asked to comment on the post.

With this example, we showed we continue to understand the brand’s unique tone-of-voice and on point reactive strategy by breaking boundaries and becoming a part of popular culture.

We positioned the brand at the forefront of primetime political satire – a completely new realm for a fast food chain – and our audience loved it!