I purposely used the term “liberal thinking” to avoid the negative connotation and name calling implication that “liberal” or “conservative” implies.

Joe Manculus: Maybe poverty in the U.S. has a branding problem. I’m serious. The ONE Campaign does a good job of raising awareness/money to fight global poverty, but show me a similar success story by a non-profit/NGO focused on the United States alone. In the meantime, try saying what you said here to a homeless man who’s trying to buy a Whopper.

Small Business Marketing: Good luck with that.

Larry Dunville: I’m a “liberal thinking individual” who agrees with everything you just said, other than you calling people like me “liberal thinking individuals.” I prefer the term “progressive” but I don’t think progressive politics have anything to do with people’s basic misunderstandings of free enterprise. Your comment suggests that anyone who’s “pro-business” (if one can make such a blanket statement and still be taken seriously) is naturally conservative. Not that I intended this post to be political in any way — nor do my views necessarily represent those of the rest of the Future Now/GrokDotCom team — but what you said is like me suggesting that everyone who’s right-wing is a fan of Larry the Cable Guy. Regardless, you make some fantastic points and I really appreciate your smart comment.

Rick & Dawn: Is it really disrespectful to play a practical joke on people if you give them a good laugh, a free meal, and (I’m assuming) the option to sign a standard release waiver that makes them aware of how the video will be used? Maybe the Whopper Freakout site could have done more to show how everyone really reacted after they were told it was a prank. An outtake reel, perhaps?

Mitch: Yup. Time spent is a big deal in this case. But not all time spent is equal. I may have loved the video and found it suspenseful, but there are a lot of people who found it painfully hard to watch.

This conversation makes me think of Bryan & Seth’s Meatball Sundae interview, where they talk about how and when to take chances with new marketing tactics. Besides, BK’s viral effort makes the perfect “meatball sundae” case study (puns intended all around).

The Future Now blog is a must read for anyone who wants to understand how to communicate more effectively on the Internet. A recent must read post highlights a brilliant marketing campaign by an established company that’s taking their game to a n…

You have people – like me – who have not been to Burger King in years spending seven-plus minutes watching the video and an whole lot more time Blogging and talking about it.

Like Subservient Chicken, I find that impressive.

The commercial is incredibly disrespectful toward customers. If that’s all they think of me, why should I go back? Why would anyone want to go someplace that will randomly take their favorite thing off the menu?

I’d go farther than “risky” and say it was “stupid”.

The free market doesn’t dictate what we buy, “big bad business” simply reacts to it. If business had the ability to tell us what to buy, GM will still be at 59% market share and gaining, rather than 23% and dwindling. If business could tell us what to buy, Kmart would never have beat Sears and both of them would not be desperately grasping for survival in the shadow of WallMart! The reason we have a hundred different kinds of deodorant on the shelf is that we buy them. When we stop demanding that kind of choice, the manufacturers will stop making them and the retailers will stop putting them on the shelf.

Next time you are ready to blame business for some problem in society, take a long hard look in the mirror. The products we are offered are a direct response to what we are asking for. Nothing more…nothing less.

Sorry if I seem to be ranting but it is about time that us bloggers say something about it and don’t tell me that this is not the right forum.

Every forum makes sense for this subject

They could have ridden the King campaign out for years and years. Even if individual ads were not particularly clever, the presence of the character still made me, and I’m sure millions of others, perk up. It actually made me want to go try one of those disgusting breakfast sandwiches, and I haven’t touched Burger King in at least eight years since I was a poor college freshman.

I watched Jack in the Box ads from afar for years, and in the four weeks that I’ve been fully relocated to the southwest, I’ve been there twice. The first time, I got a double sourdough jack, a double burger with bacon and cheese on two pieces of BUTTERED bread. I drank two cokes, ate all the fries, and felt like a fat pig, especially because I had just ingested more than my daily recommended caloric and saturated fat intake, and I was nowhere near full. But something made me go back again, and it certainly wasn’t the food.

Burger King can do far better, and have.