14 Of The Biggest Mistakes Burger King Ever Made

Although we may not think about it very often, massive fast-food chains get a lot of things right. Quick service, affordable food, and wide availability are factors that keep businesses like Burger King appealing, even when the nutritional value or the taste of some of its items can leave a little to be desired. However, it's also fair to say that fast food restaurants get a lot of things wrong, too — and you need look no further than Burger King as an example of this. America's second-most-iconic burger chain (come on, guys, we all know McDonald's is the true king here) has made a lot of errors in its time, and some of them have cost it pretty dearly.

Although Burger King has made missteps, not all of its mistakes are food-based. One key area that Burger King has slipped up in the past is in its marketing, with certain ad campaigns and mascots not just putting off customers but pulling down profits. Burger King has also tried to introduce some new dining concepts to its restaurants that have gone down like a lead balloon, and some of its administration mistakes (which seem easy enough to clear up) have cost it a massive amount of money. Let's take a tread through Burger King's checkered history.

We all love discounts, right? That's something that Burger King knows well, and which it sought to use to drive business a couple of years back. In 2019, the burger chain introduced a Whopper discount, giving customers the opportunity to grab a value meal for a slightly lower price. It was a pretty popular offer, with a lot of diners jumping at the chance.

Where Burger King got it wrong, though, is that it was also simultaneously trying to get its customers to trade up, to spend more money. The problem was that when they did that, another discount was activated. The result was that customers saved even more money than they expected, but it cost Burger King a hefty chunk overall — $8 million in a single quarter, to be precise.

When Burger King realized the mistake, the higher-ups at the company were obviously deeply embarrassed. However, their trouble didn't stop there. Investors lost confidence in the company during this period, with some folks ducking out of their stock options, which then cost Burger King even more. Its profits were damaged, but its reputation seriously suffered too.

It feels like Halloween is the moment when food companies decide to terrify their customers, not just with spooky themes and concepts but with products that are undeniably gross. This was exactly what happened in October 2015, when Burger King decided to release a limited-edition Halloween Whopper. This burger essentially took a regular Whopper, but put its ingredients in a jet-black bun that was seriously unappetizing. We can't say it's a surprise it didn't come back.

However, the reason it's never returned is not just because of its look, but because of what happened when people ate it. Customers who consumed the Halloween Whopper soon found that their poop was turning green. The good news for everyone was that the cause of the color change was pretty innocent. The bun was turned black partly through blue food coloring, and when that coloring combined with the liquids already in the intestine it created a green tinge. However, just because it was innocent, doesn't mean it wasn't a shock — and so it's little surprise that Burger King relegated its Halloween Whopper to the fast food graveyard. The whole affair hasn't stopped Burger King trying out new Halloween items, though, with its Addams Family Halloween menu recently appearing in stores. 

Fast food restaurants are constantly trying to innovate, and every now and again they'll try to shake up the very service style of the restaurant itself. In 1992, Burger King did just that, when it introduced table service at its branches around the country. Between 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. every day, customers were invited to place their order at the counter, and then wait for their food to come to their table. They'd also be given free popcorn as a snack, wouldn't have to collect any of their utensils, and wouldn't have to tip (they also couldn't, even if they wanted to — Burger King made it a policy that employees couldn't accept tips).

Burger King rolled out a few different menu items at the same time, with its Baskets combining its regular food with some extra sides. It was a big change for the chain, and we can see how it would have been a winner with some people — but it just didn't take off. Burger King's table service ended in 1994, and it hasn't come back since. 

There are some pretty bad items you can get at Burger King, but the chain isn't renowned for having particularly unhealthy items. That all changed in 2005, when the restaurant rolled out its Enormous Omelet Sandwich as part of a new push of breakfast items. This sandwich was the stuff of nightmares for nutritionists: It combined an omelet with a sausage patty, bacon, and cheese, and clocked in as being more calorific and fatty than its standard Whopper burger.

As a result, the Enormous Omelet Sandwich got a pretty frosty reception from health professionals, who questioned the need for people to have something like this for breakfast. Burger King tried to defend its sandwich by saying that it was designed for folks who like a hearty meal, but that didn't do much to change opinions. The timing was especially bad for Burger King here, considering that it was only one year after the famous documentary "Super Size Me" was released, which cast fast food culture in the United States in a severely negative light. The chain eventually got rid of the Enormous Omelet Sandwich, and it never made a comeback.

Fast food chains live and die by their fries which, despite being so simple, can make an enormous difference to your meal. So it's always a bit of a worry when they try to do something new — and it's even more concerning when they go wild with a pretty out-there change. In 2013, Burger King tried to change things up by introducing Satisfries. These fries were coated in a batter that had a slight resistance to frying oil, which meant that they didn't absorb as much fat as regular fries. The idea was simple: You could still have your fries, but make them more healthy.

Unfortunately, Satisfries were an almighty failure, and after less than a year on the market, they were gradually withdrawn from Burger King branches around the country. So where did it all go wrong? The first issue was with price: Customers were asked to pay more for their Satisfries than regular fries, which meant that they had the perception of being a premium option that potentially wasn't worth the money. Plus, it was also hard to convince people that switching to Satisfries would make their meals that much healthier, especially when they were ordering them with a burger and a milkshake. Burger King swallowed its losses, and the fries disappeared for good.

Fast food chains like Burger King have endless amounts of money and resources to draw on, to ensure that they don't make massive errors in their messaging. So when they do it, it's pretty hard to understand how it happened — especially as recently as 2019. That year, Burger King had to apologize after it put out a video advertising its new Vietnamese Sweet Chilli Tendercrisp Burger in its New Zealand locations. The ad featured diners trying, and failing, to eat the burger using chopsticks.

The video immediately caught fire online, with people on Instagram criticizing it for being culturally insensitive. Burger King recognized that things could go very wrong, and swiftly pulled the ad from its Instagram account. However, it didn't do so quickly enough, and pretty soon the video was being posted all over other social media channels, going viral and fanning the flames. Burger King subsequently put out an apology for the ad, recognizing that it was insensitive. The advertisement and its surrounding fiasco significantly overshadowed the release of the burger itself.

One of these days, fast food restaurants will stop putting out weird hybrids of their food that no one asked for. That's probably not going to happen any time soon, though, and until then we'll continue to look back on all the wild swings they've made — like the Burger King Whopperito. This odd creation debuted in 2016, and was basically exactly what it sounds like: A Whopper turned into a burrito. The beef, cheese, vegetables, and (yep!) even the pickles were stuffed into a tortilla and squirted with a queso sauce.

The Whopperito was only ever intended to be a limited-edition item, but it quickly gained a reputation as a pretty big mistake on Burger King's part, thanks to the sheer fact that it just wasn't any good. The tortilla was oversized compared to the filling, leaving the burrito with huge gaps that weren't being filled. Plus, there was nothing distinctive about it at all: It was still just a Whopper stuffed into a flatbread. Burger King had the opportunity to do something unique here, and it missed the mark big time. When the Whopperito finally joined the list of discontinued Burger King menu items, no one complained.

There have been a fair few instances of fast food chains being held to account by a single person (the infamous McDonald's coffee story, anyone?), and Burger King hasn't escaped this. In the case of a 2018 incident, the fast food chain was clearly at fault in a situation that cost a customer big bucks. It all started when Los Angeles-based Boyce Harvey tried to order a penny Whopper through its app. The penny Whopper promotion, which offered the burger for a single cent, was a way for Burger King to troll McDonald's, requiring its customers to be close to a McDonald's store to order the burger.

Kinda petty, right? Well, Burger King's grudge-driven promotion backfired when Mr. Harvey found that he had been charged almost $1,100 for the Whopper he ordered. Harvey was gobsmacked, and it left a massive dent in his bank account. This was clearly an administrative error on Burger King's part, who hastily tried to solve the situation — but there's no denying that it was an awful look for the company. No wonder it recently needed to pour money into a Whopper image refresh. 

In 2009, Burger King released an ad in Singapore for a new burger that seriously backfired. Burger King's Super Seven Incher burger was released in the country, and was accompanied by a campaign featuring a model in what a lot of people deemed to be an overtly-suggestive position. The advertisement was immediately criticized, and while it was never intended to reach the United States, pretty soon folks in the country started to see it too, creating a worldwide PR headache for the company.

Burger King was quick to try and move on from the incident, but unfortunately, its trouble didn't end there. In 2014, the model whose photo was used in the campaign called for a boycott of Burger King after claiming that she had never been informed that her image was to be used in such a way. The model, who was not named, had asserted that the image of her was one of several taken during a stock photo shoot, and Burger King had deliberately used it to suggest something way more adult.

Happy Meals are, by their very nature, pretty sweet and innocent. A meal designed for kids, containing a toy for each one and coming in a charming little box? They're hard to criticize, folks. However, in 2019 Burger King decided to do just that. Deciding to troll McDonald's yet again (honestly, when will these guys get over it?), the chain decided to put on Real Meals, a series of combo meals that came in Happy Meal-like boxes. These boxes were clearly designed to be enjoyed by teens and young adults, and came emblazoned with various "online" words and phrases that were intended to appeal to Gen Z, like "salty," "DGAF," and "yaaas."

These Real Meals felt pretty cynical to start with, but it doesn't end there. Burger King released them in an attempt to tie in with Mental Health Awareness Month. The idea was that its Real Meals represented the true emotions young people were feeling, instead of just being happy all the time. However, the restaurant was roundly criticized for wielding mental health as a way to sell products, and doing so with a tenuous link that, ironically, felt insincere. Needless to say, Real Meals didn't last long.

The reason we go to fast food restaurants is because we want less work when it comes to our food. So when a fast food chain releases a food item that requires us to expend even more energy to enjoy it, it's little surprise that it fails. Such was the case with Burger King's Shake 'em up Fries, which were released in 2002. These fries were sold in a bag with a sachet of cheese-flavored seasoning, and the idea was that you poured them both in and shook the two together, giving you the ability to control exactly how much flavor there was.

In theory, the chance to set your own seasoning levels seems pretty fun, but these fries were a big mistake. People just didn't enjoy them as much as Burger King thought they would. Maybe it was because they were just too much work, or maybe folks just didn't jive with the concept of dry cheese-flavored fries. Whatever the reason, Shake 'em up fries were quickly removed from the menu.

Fast food restaurants can do some pretty weird things to promote their products, y'all — and if you want any proof of this, take a look at a seriously bizarre ad campaign that Burger King conducted in the 1980s. Burger King devised a campaign that centered around a character called Herb. This guy, played by actor Jon Menick, had a mythology built around him which claimed that he'd never eaten a Whopper. It came complete with fake interviews and spots with his family, in an attempt to create intrigue and suspense.

The problem was that people just found the whole thing a bit annoying. The character of Herb was deemed unlikeable, and the response to a Superbowl ad that finally revealed his face was totally underwhelming. Burger King then doubled down, sending Menick around the country as Herb to give people who spotted him a chance to win $5,000. However, this resulted in a fair few conflicts when underage kids, who weren't old enough to claim the cash prize, were told they hadn't actually won when they saw Herb. Eventually, the Herb character was retired, and he's gone down in history as one of the worst presences in ad campaign history.

Look through a list of Burger King's big mistakes, and you'll see a common trend: Examples of the chain attempting to outdo McDonald's and failing. One example of this was when it debuted a mascot of its very own. The King, Burger King's official mascot, debuted in its first form in 1955 — a couple of years before Ronald McDonald appeared in the 1960s. However, while Ronald McDonald became iconic and fairly beloved, the King always just seemed a little bit frightening and weird.

Various redesigns of the King's image didn't help matters, as people were never quite sure where they stood with the strange-looking presence at Burger King. Eventually, the restaurant chose to pull the plug. In 2011, Burger King finally decided that it was time to put the King to rest. It's fair to say that people weren't exactly devastated that he wouldn't be looming over their burgers anymore.

Fast food chains haven't always got social media right, and in one instance back in 2009, Burger King seriously messed things up. It all started when ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky, which was working with Burger King, introduced the Whopper Sacrifice campaign. The concept behind it was slightly nefarious. Run in conjunction with Facebook, the idea was that if you deleted 10 people from your friends list, you'd be rewarded with a coupon for a free burger.

Unfortunately, the issue was that Burger King hadn't quite figured out the privacy side of things. The Whopper Sacrifice app, which folks had to download to enable the coupon, alerted people when they were deleted from a friend list. Facebook ended up pulling the campaign from its website for violating its privacy guidelines. Crispin Porter & Bogusky claimed the subsequent PR storm as a success, but to be honest, from a modern-day perspective it kinda just looks like a big mistake on everyone's part.