Burger King: Stunt Marketing

In 2018, Burger King used geofencing to offer a one-cent Whopper, but only to customers standing within 600 feet of a McDonald's. The Whopper Detour drove rivals' foot traffic, sent BK's app to the top of the charts, and generated earned media a paid budget could never buy. Two years later the Moldy Whopper showed a burger decomposing over 34 days to advertise the removal of preservatives. Gross, newsworthy, effective.

For founders and operators, this is a case about the attention no media spend can purchase, and the precise conditions under which a provocative move lands instead of looking desperate. It sharpens the judgment call of whether your brand has earned the right to pull a stunt, and what separates a story reporters want to cover from one they will ignore.