Saturday, October 18, 2014

Billy Eichner and Fast Food Giants Engage in a ‘Street’ Fight

            Comedian and Parks and Recreation guest star Billy Eichner waged a Twitter war on Burger King on October 12th and embraced the power of marketing via twitter. After tweets from his followers, Eichner accused the burger joint of copying his Funny or Die act/Fuse television show “Billy on the Street” for their latest commercial. 

          Take a look, posted below: one of Eichner’s Emmy nominated satirical game show clips and the commercial in question.

Funny or Die-Billy on the Street

vs.

Burger King-TV ad

 Eichner isn’t the first to ask questions to unsuspecting passersby on the street, but he built his brand on the way he asks the questions. Burger King seems to copy his act, even hiring an actor that resembles Eichner. Sorry Burger King, you can’t have it your way.
 So who wins this fight? Well, Eichner certainly isn’t hurting from this publicity, especially with mainstream media picking up the story and his famous friends, like Director/Producer Judd Apatow, retweeting their support. If you didn’t know who the actor/comedian was before, you do now.

          But the true winner is…McDonalds?! Yes, you read that right. The other fast food giant won this fight. Let me explain further.
 Right now the fight is mostly one-sided because Burger King hasn’t responded to Eichner’s tweets, but McDonald’s did. Burger King’s silence proves they do not understand the power of Twitter and its uncanny ability to market to the masses for free. They have not created an environment of transparency for followers and readers on any of their social media pages. Eichner and his tweets should have solicited a response from them, but it seems they are too busy with things like #whoppercrushwednesday.They should have created a marketing plan for this unexpected problem.
There is reason Burger King needs to be concerned. Before they were called out by Eichner, Burger King bought Canadian fast food restaurant Tim Horton’s and saw a sales boost 0.1% at the beginning of this year compared to McDonald's 3.3% sales decline. However, this bad press and lack of response on Burger King’s behalf could affect their momentum.
At the very least, Burger King should have responded in jest. By starting the conversation with Eichner, they would have maintained buzz on social media and mainstream media and got free marketing. McDonalds decided to tweet Eichner back, after he referred to them in these tweets:

Unlike Burger King, they continued the conversation and interact on Twitter with Eichner’s fans and fans of the fast food company, generating buzz for McDonald’s. They let Eichner and his followers know they listened and they responded appropriately inviting Eichner to McDonald’s. 
      They even went a step further and joined in on Eichner’s comedy with their tweet inviting two-time Billy on the Street contestant –and the much meme'd—Elena along with him. This tweet leads Eichner’s followers to McDonald’s page where they talk about the latest Monopoly game.
In comparing the two Twitter pages, McDonald’s is the only company listening to what its followers say and they let them know they hear them with tweets like this:

On the other hand, Burger King fills their Twitter feed with emoticons, pictures and cartoons of their food. Yes, they are having fun, but they don’t want to hear from you, at least on their Twitter page. They do not embrace Twitter correctly.


Burger King missed a great opportunity. They could have turned the situation around and gotten free publicity they needed. Instead, they let McDonald’s steal the marketing win yet again. Eichner says it best with one of his latest tweets, listen up Burger King!

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1 comment:

  1. Kate SkorbOctober 20, 2014 at 12:36 PM

    Kelly, great minds think alike! I think it's so interesting how Burger King still hasn't responded to this controversy. Shame on them for not listening to their followers. Twitter is a force!

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