WHOPPING CONTROVERSY

In the two weeks since its launch the latest Burger King campaign, Whopper Virgins, has attracted more attention and caused more controversy than any other spot this year. shots spoke to Rob Reilly, partner and co-executive creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, to get his views.

Launched on December 4, Whopper Virgins follows a film crew that travels to various off-the-beaten-track locations in an attempt to conduct a completely neutral taste test. Working within small communities who have never been exposed to Burger King or McDonald's advertising, the spot aims to demonstrate as objectively as possible that BK's Whopper tastes better than a Big Mac.

As soon as Whopper Virgins hit the net a snowstorm of controversy and criticism erupted, with bloggers, message boards and video site comment lists bombarded with posts on the spot. Critics attacked the film for its portrayal of the communities involved, some going as far as to label the spot "racist", "cynical" and an example of "cultural colonialism". The furore escalated to the degree that Russ Klein, head of marketing at Burger King, went on ABC to defend the commercial ABC.

We spoke to Rob Reilly at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, the agency behind the spot, to get his side of the story.

"Our aim with the spot was to figure out a new way of investigating the preference claim in a way that wouldn't come across as chest-pounding. That's where the notion of the world's biggest taste test came in," Reilly explains. "In my head it was a pure and simple idea - finding places where people won't have seen a Burger King or McDonald's commercial."

One of the key criticisms of the spot is that the people who feature in it are from areas where hunger is an issue. Reilly is keen to stress that the project was researched by an independent third party company to ensure the communities featured did not suffer food shortage issues. "We tried to make the film with the utmost respect for the people of these communities," he says. "We wanted to prove the taste point in a way that wasn't exploitative. It certainly wasn't done to get laughs out of people by showing these communities in a negative light."

To an extent, Reilly suggests, the debate surrounding the commercial is due in part to the freedom provided by the internet. "I can't fault people for writing blogs and this is an interesting debate that's got a lot of people with opinions writing about it. There are multiple ways you could interpret the spot but if there are words or phrases or if people feel it was edited in such a way that's caused offense that certainly wasn't our intention."

As Reilly reveals, Crispin Porter + Bogusky didn't carry out focus group research on the spot prior to its launch. "We don't really do testing with Burger King. We're not against testing but we don't necessarily test everything. I wouldn't go back and test it with hindsight."

Burger King's Katy Boylan adds that in each of the communities, researchers worked closely with the authorities to tailor donation packages appropriate to the needs of the local people. "In two of the locations we donated educational support packages and in the third we contributed towards an ongoing church restoration project."