By: Jarod Kutz

If one were to think of the top two competing fast-food restaurant chains, the answers would most likely consist of two names: Burger King and McDonald’s. Because these two chains compete heavily for the top spot, why would one ever help the other increase its sales? The answer to this question took place during Burger King’s “A Day Without Whopper” campaign.

This campaign that launched in Argentina expressed that Burger Kings were not going to sell their best-selling item, the Whopper, on September 26, 2019. Although the chain refused to sell its best-selling product for the day, it was for a great reason. The reasoning behind this campaign was to encourage Burger King customers to go to McDonald’s on that specific day to help McDonald’s celebrate its annual McHappy Day. McHappy Day occurs every year in Argentina, and on the day, Big Mac sales are donated to charitable foundations that benefit children with cancer. For every Big Mac sold, McDonald’s donated $2 to children with cancer. McDonald’s ended up having a record campaign year. McDonald’s ended up selling 73,437 more Big Mac’s than last year. This resonated with consumers very well.

Although businesses compete every day to be the best and make the most money, like Burger King and McDonald’s, public image and reputation are just as important as sales. Burger King proved just that with its own campaign to support the campaign of McDonald’s, its arch-rival. All businesses and corporations need to pay attention to what Burger King did on September 26, 2019. Not only did this help McDonald’s, but it might also eventually help Burger King sometime in the future too. Someday, Burger King might need help, and McDonald’s will remember what Burger King did for them.

Burger King played this extremely well from a public relations perspective. To lose sales on purpose just to benefit another franchise who is running a campaign to support children with cancer is unequivocally sending off a great image for the corporation.