Burger King takes unusual road with Real Meals

Burger King has taken on an interesting promotion concept with its new Real Meals deal.

Burger King is no stranger to quirky promotions, but their Real Meals deal promos may be the most unusual. For Mental Health Awareness Month, Burger King has gotten a leg up on its competition by coming out with five meals that reflect a different mood of the customer.

In reality, the Real Meals are just a different twist of their $6 King Box, but it’s one that’s generated some talk, which in the fast food business, isn’t bad.

Check out the promotional video for this new meal, below: 

On one side of the coin, people are praising the fast food behemoth for addressing mental health, even if it is, in a lot of ways, is for profit and not really about pushing the conversation of mental health. Sure, Burger King came out with the touch “#FeelYourWay” campaign, but it didn’t really move the needle for mental health advocates.

Still, at least Burger King actually acknowledged it, and that’s OK.

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On the other side of the coin, some see it as shade towards McDonald’s, and it’s not entirely hard to see where that correlation is born from. For decades, McDonald’s has had a monopoly on the kid’s meal with its Happy Meals. As an answer to that happy yellow smile, Burger King is swiping McDonald’s in saying that no one is happy all the time.

Which is true, but also quite odd when you think about it.

Real Meals are clearly made for adults, and the Happy Meals have always been meant for kids (and adults who are short on cash). If Burger King was really trying to push back against McDonald’s “everything is sunny” stance, why would they really go after a meal for kids?

Then again, this is the Great Fast Food Wars, and nothing truly makes sense.

Which is why the Real Meal promos are unusual. Burger King should receive praise for addressing the long-held taboo subject of mental health (with Whoppers!), however, it is quite weird that — if true — Burger King going to war over a kid’s meal to make that point.

Nothing makes sense in fast food.