Burger King Hijacks two cult classics in christmas campaign

Created by BBH, the OOH and radio campaigns were designed intentionally to break after all the headline-grabbing Christmas spots

By Creative Salon

28 November 2023

Burger King UK aims to cut through the busiest time of year by subverting two of the biggest festive traditions, in its latest campaign - ‘Hijacking Christmas’ - from BBH. Leaving the magical moments to other brands, Burger King’s ‘hijack’ takes on two of the biggest icons of the season: Santa Claus and the Christmas #1.

OOH executions play on the dual meanings of ‘Whopper’, which can describe Burger King’s signature burger… or an exceptionally big fib. Like suggesting there’s a genial man in a red, fur-trimmed suit who uses a herd of reindeer to deliver presents to children all over the world, without being caught on Ring cameras or being questioned over the GDPR compliance of his naughty and nice list. Which of course, there absolutely is (for any kids reading this).

The cult classic, Driving Home For Christmas, has been rewritten to ensure, during the lead-up to the big day, people are guided to 21 Burger King Drive Thru locations across the most travelled motorways in the UK, with specific turn-by-turn directions. The new rendition is titled, very cleverly, Driving (Thru The) Home (Of The Whopper) For Christmas.

This new song and future hit is accompanied by a 8-minute 80s style “music video” extravaganza starring an all-singing and dancing sat-nav. That’s not all, the full-length song has been sliced to create individual local radio ads that target listeners when they are driving by any of the 21 drive-thru destinations. So they can drive thru the Home of the Whopper while they’re driving home for Christmas.

The campaign has been designed intentionally to break after all the headline-grabbing Christmas spots, with the OOH and radio campaign launching this week and the music video launched on YouTube on 27th November.

Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes - Deputy ECD & Partner said: “As a challenger brand you gotta come into the conversation slightly different, especially at Christmas. So instead of joining in, we decided to hijack. Merry Christmas.”

Soco Núñez de Cela - Brand and Communications Director said: “It’s hard for brands to stand out at Christmas. So instead of trying to out-Christmas anyone, we decided to hijack it. We had a lot of fun with arguably the biggest Whopper of the season & creating a tune that will be in our heads and hopefully everyone else’s throughout the season.”