The three finalists have been named in Burger King’s New Whopper contest. It’s a promo of un-precedented dimensions – both monetary and legendary. And you can vote to determine the big winner!
The $1 M New Whopper Contest Finalists (l. to r.): The Pickle Ranch Whopper, the
Mexican Street Corn Whopper, and the Maple Bourbon Bacon Whopper…
“The Million Dollar Whopper Contest [is] all about taking ‘Have It Your Way’ to the next level,” Pat O’Toole, the Chief Marketing Officer at Burger King North America said, in a statement. “And we were blown away by the thought and creativity that went into the Whopper creations that were submitted.”
A huge task
Sifting through the more than the veritable mountain of submissions received since this past Febru-ary was nothing less than a monumental job.
“After reviewing more than one million creative and mouthwatering submissions, Burger King and its team of flame-grilled experts have selected the three finalists,” the brand shared in a statement.
(Did you catch the grammatical glitch, there? The way that sentence is written, BK is actually saying its experts are flame-grilled, rather than it’s burgers! Nevertheless…)
The three finalists will be available, for a limited tine starting in November, for fans to sample, and register their opinions.
Here they are…
The Fried Pickle Ranch Whopper, created by Fabian of California, is built on the mandatory Whopper quarter-pound, flame-grilled beef patty, “topped with pickle ranch, lettuce, fried pickles, bacon, and Swiss cheese,” of course, on a Whopper-standard toasted sesame seed bun.”
The Maple Bourbon BBQ Whopper, created by Calvin of California, specifies same beef legendary patty, “topped with maple bourbon BBQ sauce, crispy onions and jalapeños, maple bacon seasoning, bacon, and American cheese,” on the trademark toasted sesame seed bun.”
And, last but definitely not least, comes the Mexican Street Corn Whopper, which tops the classic Whopper patty with, “street corn spread, lettuce, tomato, Southwest seasoned tortilla crisps, and Mexican spicy queso.”
Over to you…
The ball is now in your court, Whopper fans! But not all of you. Only BK Royal Perks account holders will be allowed to vote. That sounds a little unfair, to say the least. (More on that ‘sidebar’ issue in a moment…)
Each RP member will be allowed to vote once and only once during the voting period. Each of the finalists (in the order as determined by the voting) will receive a nifty cash prize. First Prize is $1 million. Second Prize is $200,000 and Third Prize is $100,000. So the finalists are already grinning ear-to-ear…
My take
I was wondering… Even after reading every word of the contest Rules, I haven’t been able to discover whether the triumphant New Whopper will be a permanent menu item, or just an occasional limited-time offering. After all the hoop-la surrounding the mega-contest, one could be forgiven for presum-ing the new burger would be accorded permanent status…
On the matter of voting being limited to Royal Perks members. I think this was a very bad decision by the BK Brain Trust. Their superficial rationale was almost certainly in response to a ‘standing order’ from corporate to include an enticement for fans to join the plan.
‘Planning’ for the future…
All Fast Food brands want as many fans as they can lasso to join their loyalty plans. That helps stab-ilize their customer bases. It also encourages more fans to use digital ordering and payment systems, which allows the chains to reduce human staffing at their stores. Human staff are the most expens-ive, most problematic factors in running a Fast Food business. A central goal of the FF Bus-iness Plan of the Future is to eliminate as many humans as possible from the picture.
But many folks have wider-ranging tastes. They don’t want to join loyalty plans which would tether them to just one brand. And there are many of them.
Burger King has consistently been cited in annual consumer surveys as the second-most-popular Burger chain, after McDonald’s. I’ll bet there are 10s or 100s of thousands of such folks around the world who relish their freedom, and will feel disenfranchised by BK for being left out of the big $1 million Whopper decision…
~ Maggie J.