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McDonald’s uses a broad array of marketing tactics, but historically it has left head-to-head-taste-test comparisons to bloggers. That’s why it’s interesting that the chain this week has launched a taste-test TV commercial for its McCafé coffee in Australia. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H36D7puFkZU The spot opens with a young woman’s assertion that “Blind taste tests have shown that more people [...]

Will Crispin Porter + Bogusky hang on to Burger King’s $300 million-plus advertising business? Today’s reorganization of the chain’s top makes the question unavoidable. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTUac13I_PI The reorganization comes less than a week after 3G Capital completed its $4 billion acquisition of Burger King Holdings. Six new executive vice presidents were named today. Leaving the company are [...]

Ξ Give Wendy’s credit for making social networking truly social. So often it’s one-way nonsense like the endless “Tell us why you love us!” Facebook promotions and pointless “So what’s going on?” Twitter chatter. Most chains and indies would rather than speak than listen. After all, now that you’ve amassed several hundred Twitter and Facebook [...]

So the obvious question is how McDonald’s can report a 5.3% increase in third-quarter same-store sales when competitor Jack in the Box is down 9.4% for the latest quarter, Sonic is down 6.4%, Carl’s Jr. is down 7.4, Wendy’s is down 1.7% (Q2), and the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index has been flat for [...]

It’s surprising no other chain thought of it earlier, but Checkers/Rally’s has seized the opportunity this week with its introduction of a Quarter Pound Big Chicken sandwich. The sandwich debuts with a TV commercial promoting a 2 for $3 price. Weight long has been a staple of burger marketing, what with McDonald’s Quarter Pounders and [...]

Ξ From research NPD Group comes some interesting data on shifts in what and how Americans eat over the past 30 years. For example, the percentage of at-home meals made from scratch has declined from 72% to 59% over that period. And meals have become simpler: the average number of food items used per meal [...]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocx016XavNA Barely three months after Apollo Management completed its acquisition of CKE Restaurants, the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s advertising accounts—with combined 2009 ad spending of $58 million—are being reviewed, Advertising Age reported today. The departures of key executives at incumbent agency Mendelsohn Zien, Los Angeles, also may have been a factor, Ad Age reports. Mendelsohn Zien—famous [...]

 McDonald’s has moved away from the strategy of having regional variations of its menu, with the exception of the Northeast’s McLobster and a few others, instead establishing a more easily promoted national menu. But it still needs to test new items in a few select markets, and that process seems to be accelerating. McDonald’s this [...]

There are those who would have us believe that burgers are yesterday’s news. To them, I say, please visit ABC Kitchen, the stylish restaurant-within-a-showroom in New York City that Esquire magazine this week named 2010’s Best New Restaurant. Plunk down $21 and enjoy ABC Kitchen’s Akaushi Cheeseburger with herbed mayo and pickled jalapeños. There’s nothing [...]

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRxdZaTm7Kc It was in 1775 that Samuel Johnson famously decried that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Now, scoundrels increasingly find refuge instead in talk-radio, leaving patriotism as the last refuge of lazy marketers. Two new examples: Hungry Jack’s, aka Burger King in Australia, is a prime television sponsor there of television coverage of [...]

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvEY7xdYnAo Sonic’s decision to review its ad account and incumbent Barkley’s choice not to defend it means a new agency, new advertising are in the offing for the No. 4 burger chain. The latest incarnation of its slogan, “Sonic good.” (at left), is pretty toothless, but at least it was a slogan. Many chains—Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr. [...]

[10/4 Update: Read about Boston Market's upgrades here.] Note: Email subscribers, please note that www.BurgerBusiness.com welcomes our inaugural advertiser, Red Gold Tomato Ketchup. We invite you to visit Red Gold’s site, add its fine product at your restaurant or table if you haven’t yet done so and thank Red Gold for making it possible for [...]