Burger King Has Big Trouble, But It’s Not Mary J. Blige
The article was written in 2012 by David Vinjamuri, a contributor to Forbes, and he discusses Burger King’s decision to pull its commercial starring Mary J. Blige due to racist undertones. See the commercial here: According to Vinjamuri (2012), “Burger King and newly agency Mother New York clearly did not anticipate the reaction to the spot (the campaign also features Jay Leno and David Beckham) and quickly pulled it.” In addition to pulling the commercial, Burger King and Mary J. Blige were not on the same page in their responses to the matter as well. As explained by Vinjamuri (2012) the reactions seemed rushed, “that looked like a panic move (pulling the commercial) as did the reactions from both Blige and Burger King.” Blige told TMZ, “if you’re a Mary fan, you have to know I would never allow an unfinished spot like the one you saw go out, Burger King meanwhile claimed licensing issues for the reason to take the commercial off the air.” The real problem for Burger King as explained by Vinjamuri is, “Burger King’s nervous reaction to the spot points at a deeper truth that will linger long after this incident is forgotten: the chain is in deep trouble. It failed to meet the challenge of changing consumer tastes as the chains like Subway and Starbucks grew their food business dramatically” (Vinjamuri, 2012). In addition to not having flexibility in its products and ability to change, Vinjamuri continues explaining other issues, “The real problem for Burger King is that it appears to have no strategy and no unique value proposition” (Vinjamuri, 2012).
Mary J. Blige in the controversial commercial that hit the airwaves in 2012.
The reason I chose this article is that it touches on very important subject matters, especially those covered in the course thus far. We’ve learned the importance of media and its role in society and that media has the ability to inform, educate, persuade, and entertains us. Also, we have discussed how multicultural marketing as an essential business practice for companies in today’s world in order to connect with audiences that have an extremely larger buying potential than in decades past. As discussed by David Morse in the book Multicultural Intelligence, “In 2007, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and African Americans made up $2.2 trillion in purchasing power” (p.9). Pozin (2015) states this total is now almost $3.5 trillion, “In fact, U.S. multicultural buying power is growing at an exponential rate, increasing from $661 billion in 1990 to $3.4 trillion in 2014.” Companies are attempting to do this by devoting entire departments to engage and communicate directly with the multicultural marketplace. However, this type of marketing is not easy due in part to brands going about engagement the wrong way. This Burger King example fits the wrong way to engage an audience model. Burger King was very tone deaf and very insensitive to stereotypes in their campaign and they heard about it. One example of the negative feedback comes from a popular and influential website “Madame Noire,” which author Renay Alize wrote an article to Mary J. Blige titled, “An Open Letter to Mary J. Blige Re: Her Buffoonish Burger King Commercial”. In the letter, she voiced her concerns, “It’s true, most people get down with the poultry, but as a black woman, singing passionately about chicken is not the move!”
I agree that it would have been wise for Mary J. Blige and Burger King to be much more aware and sensitive to stereotypes. We as a society need to be much more insightful to the changing demographics, especially here in the United States. As stated in Nielsen’s (2015) research report regarding America’s youth, referenced by Ilya Pozin in his 2015 Forbes article, “Nielsen research suggests marketing to Millennials and younger generations must be driven by multicultural insights, as younger age cohorts are already over 50% multicultural” (Nielsen, 2015). Another recommendation by Nielsen is to allow people belonging to certain communities to express and maintain their cultures, “Multicultural consumers are expressive and inclusive, which very often allows multicultural consumers to simultaneously maintain their cultural heritage and see themselves as part of the new mainstream, allowing them to mix and match endless choices and products to suit their effortless duality in lifestyles and tastes” (Nielsen, 2015).
Hope you enjoyed reading!
Please feel free to comment and add to the discussion!
Sincerely,
Stephen Watts
@jaylee4515
#COMM837S19
For your enjoyment, here are the links to Vinjamuri’s and Pozin’s articles, the Nielsen Company’s 2015 demographics report, and Alize’s open letter:
https://madamenoire.com/152765/an-open-letter-to-mary-j-blige-re-her-buffoonish-burger-king-commercial/