Short Essay 2

Ian Roche

Professor Leake

Short Essay 2

7 April, 2013

Burger King: Then and Now

            Advertising is a war between companies trying to vie for the largest share of a target audience. Target audience is defined as the desired group of consumers for a certain product or service. Even when similar companies are advertising to the same target audience these companies have various ways of attempting to attract business and these methods change over time. The above examples of advertisements exemplify this change in advertising styles over time. The change comes as a result of social evolution and an evolution in target audience. Effective advertising uses ethos, logos, and especially pathos to appeal to certain audiences. While these advertisements cannot provide cultural and food values for an entire society, they do provide insight into the values of certain groups and makes society aware of the presence of these values.

            The advertisement on the left, referred to as Ad 1, is a Burger King advertisement from 1975 while the advertisement on the right, referred to as Ad 2, is a Burger King advertisement from 2009. The advertising, therefore, social evolution over the 34 years in astounding. Both advertisements use minimal ethos, which is demonstrated by the fact that Burger King, a fast food mogul in this country, is the advertiser. Ad 1 clearly shows a company trying to attract families who want low cost, yet personalized and tasty food. The advertisement uses pathos and logos to attract working class families. This can be inferred because Burger King is known to be low cost food and the slogan “Have it your way…It’s the only way” shows the company is promoting personal choice. The personal choice is important because people can feel a personal connection to their food, inciting pathos. The personal connection is important to establish in order to entice customers into venturing to a Burger King and get the meal they want. This establishment of connection in conjunction with the family picture in the advertisement seems to be an attempt to create a family atmosphere. A place where one could get low cost, home-cooking style food. Working class families need lower cost food and in some cases it may be more cost and time efficient for a family to go to Burger King, instead of spend the money and time to make a full meal at home. Time is another concern addressed in Ad 1, the writing in the lower left hand corner says, “Why wait for what you want…” The aspects of family, low cost, time efficiency, and personalization are all components of the ad, which implies that the target audience is a working class family who is usually on a tight schedule. Ad 2 is for Burger King as well, however, 34 years later the market has shifted in response to changing demographic and cultural beliefs.

            34 years ago our generations’ parents were in high school, the President was Gerald Ford, and Ad 1 was attempting to attract busy, working class families to Burger King. Many things changed over those 34 years. In 2009 our generation was in high school and college, the President was Barack Obama, and Ad 2 was attempting to attract young, working class males to venture to Burger King for a burger. It is easily shown by this racy advertisement that young males are the target audience because “sex sells,” especially with the young males. Ad 2 was eventually banned and removed from circulation because of the reference to oral sex. This reference and the attractive young woman were used to catch the interest of males from high school age to late 20’s. This age demographic is stereotypically motivated by sexual desires and this advertisement uses this stereotype to attract these young males. The oral sex reference is also included in the use of the length of the sandwich (seven inches) in the name. This sexual innuendo is the pathos aspect of the advertisement. Young males will see the reference and take a second look at the advertisement, hopefully, enticing them into buying a “BK Super Seven Incher.” Logos is included with the price of $6.25 for a full meal. A low price is essential to attract the young demographic because these customers typically have low paying jobs and cannot afford to spend too much on food. This distasteful advertisement combines sex appeal and food, another cornerstone of being a young male, to attract this demographic to Burger King.

            Advertising styles have experienced a profound change over the last 34 years and this is exemplified by the two Burger King advertisements above. In 1975 advertising was family oriented, attempting to target kids into convincing their parents to take them places or lend them money to go spend at an establishment. However, the advertisement from 2009 shows the shift in the style of advertising to a sexualized ad attempting to make profit from young males with their own money. While the advertising changed, it was in response to social changes. From stories, television, and stereotypes life in the 1970s was much more family oriented and less open sexually. However, by 2009 changes in culture due to a plethora of factors such as music, legal action, and variation in work habitats all contributed to a more sexualized, fast paced society. Since the day Puritans landed on the East coast this country has gotten more “racy” and free socially. Ad 2 shows how much this country has changed, while it is not necessarily a problem it is a major change that society has created.