Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Herb: The guy who never tasted a hamburger at Burger King

In 1985 Burger King released a series of ads about Herb. See, according to their "research", EVERYONE in the world had tried a burger at Burger King. EXCEPT HERB.

So, Burger King ran a $40 million dollar ad campaign featuring the slogan "Where's Herb?" The TV commercials went something like this:

OLD LADY: I'm Herb's mom. He is such a loser.
MAN: I sold Herb a ladder once, he was a nice guy, but he needs to eat more fast food!
ANNOUNCER: Find Herb at Burger King and you can win money.

Yup, the actor who played Herb traveled the country giving people money if they recognized him.

Unfortunately, no one knew what he looked like.

So, people were constantly harassed when they went to Burger King.

MAN ONE: Are you Herb?
MAN TWO: No, are you trying to win that money?
MAN ONE: No, I need to borrow his ladder.

Finally, on Superbowl Sunday, Herb was revealed. Herb was the stereotypical nerd. Thick glasses, white socks and a loud suit.

That way, only nerds were harassed at Burger King, which is how it should be.

Herb also appeared at Wrestlemania 2 as one of the celebrity judges for the Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper boxing match.

In the end, the ad campaign was a failure. No one quite knew what the commercials were saying? Herb was a nerd because he NEVER had a Burger King hamburger. But, WHY would we look for him there? What was he doing at Burger King if he didn't eat hamburgers? Was he a vegetarian? Did he just like that hot chick that worked the register? No one knew? Hey that last sentence wasn't a question? Why did it end with a question mark?

Now for my confession:
I have never eaten a Fish Fillet at McDonalds. Find me at a McDonalds and I will give you... a surly attitude.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for your keen insight Mr. Kerry. Oh wait, I meant Mr. Hamburgler!

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  2. Being English, you will have to forgive my ignorance of American burger culture, but is Burger King really so bad? I must agree with the original post however when it comes to Fish fillets at McDonalds. I just don't trust em. Prejudiced I know, but hey why they trying to fool us into thinking it might just taste nice by giving it a pseudo French accent?! I always insist on calling it a fillet of fish in my best broadest Yorkshire accent.

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  3. Carlos,
    Burger King isn't THAT bad, they just aren't THAT good. Except thier chicken sandwich, that rocks!

    ReplyDelete