Combative Advertising: Burger King’s “Tiny Hands”

In their recent “tiny hands” ad campaign, Burger King uses combative advertising against their main competitor: McDonald’s. Combative Advertising is a strategy that shifts consumer preferences towards a different brand within an industry. In class, we discussed that it does not increase overall demand in the industry; it simply moves consumer demand from one firm to another. In their advertising campaign, Burger King compares the size of their cheeseburger to that of a McDonald’s cheeseburger through the use of an actor that is afraid the large size of a Burger King cheeseburger will make his small hands look even smaller. The point of the ad is to convey to consumers that if he eats a small McDonald’s cheeseburger, his hands will not look smaller. At the end of the ad, Burger King introduces the statistic that their double cheeseburger contains 30% more meat than the McDonald’s double cheeseburger.

According to Ken Zasky, President of Starlink Worldwide, in an article written in 2006, combative advertising is necessary to differentiate your product from the competition. In the case of this Burger King campaign, they are differentiating the size of their double cheeseburger from McDonald’s. Zasky also comments that companies can create a niche in the media marketplace through combative advertising. Through their new television commercials, Burger King is creating a niche among those who want more “bang for their buck” in a larger double cheeseburger. In this industry, combative advertising is important because there are so many choices for similar products. Therefore, Burger King is attempting to gain market share through this advertising campaign.

This blog post was written by Elizabeth Johnson, Laura Heslop and Lauren Bariexca