The "Burger King"
[Editor's Note: This post originally appeared on our sister site, Marketing Access]
I read recently that the creepy-assed “Burger King” mascot has been taken off his throne and sent to the rubbish bin. I was thrilled because I found the ads with that particular “being” crude and frankly, as a father of two young kids, scary. Further, I thought it was a bad piece of Marketing that too many otherwise sane folks extolled as creative and, well, “cool.”
Yep, there we go. Taking out the soapbox now – here goes:
Cool is a stupid word. Trying to be cool is a stupid aspiration.
Let me at this point say that I’m as guilty as everyone else in the sheer overuse of the word. In a funny way, the word is democratic- it’s used by everyone for everything but it unites grungy California ne’er do wells with titans of the tech industry. But that’s where it’s “coolness” ends.
If I wanted to give a benign and thoughtful criticism I’d say that the main problem with the word is that its meaning has been dulled to the point of nothingness by constant use. But that’s not really my point.
My point is that the desire to be cool makes people do silly (and at times bad) things.
Take what the desire to create cool work has done to Marketing.
It’s instructive to look at Burger King because they went the “cool” route. But for the past decade, their business has sucked while McDonald’s is kicking ass. The latter did simple things like, well, introduce coffee and salads. And they advertised them in, well, fairly normal ways. So while cool might have won Crispin, Porter, and Bogusky a ton of awards and got them a bunch of brainless small-dollar acolytes, it didn’t do much for the Whopper boys who, incidentally, pay their bills.
The desire to be cool makes you derivative and a follower. Cool is for charlatans without substance.
Do something real ladies and gentlemen. Please.
