Hey, I'm allowed to use double entendres on my blog - because it doesn't serve families. Anyway, I was quoted in the Ad Age piece about the controversy. Interesting how Burger King removed the offensive imagery (see previous post).
BURGER KING'S COQROQ.COM TRIGGERS CONTROVERSY
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Even though it has suddenly removed sexual double entendres from its new Web site, CoqRoq.com, Burger King today denied it had received any complaints from consumers or other outside groups. by Kate MacArthur.
You do have to register for free to read the whole thing. Email me at mediaegg at hotmail.com if you'd like me to email a copy of the text to you.
My favorite part of the article:
Among other things, CoqRoq.com, which is linked directly to the main Burger King Web site, includes photo galleries with Polaroid-style shots of young girls with the handwritten captions "Groupies love the Coq" and “groupies love Coq." Since the site went live yesterday, those captions and others have been erased from the online materials. AdAge.com took screen shots of those removed materials yesterday afternoon.
“Nothing on the site has changed because of any reaction to the site,” said Edna Johnson, senior vice president for global communications for Burger King Corp., which is owned by private equity firm Texas Pacific Group. Mrs. Johnson said photo cutlines were written and then assigned randomly by computer software that as since been disabled. She said malfunctions in the Flash and XML programming were responsible for putting the "Groupies love the Coq" on the photos of the young women.
background info from NYTimes.com
From Burger King,
Music to Eat Chicken By
Burger King and its creative agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky in Miami, are hoping to score again with a campaign using entertainment to sell chicken menu items to fast-food consumers ages 18 to 34.
A campaign that is to begin today introduces a make-believe band, Coq Roq, whose members, bearing names like Fowl Mouth and Free Range, wear chicken masks as they belt out heavy-metal music to promote a new Burger King product, Chicken Fries, chicken strips formed like French fries.
A Web site (coqroq.com) will present Coq Roq as a real band sponsored by Burger King, complete with CD's of songs like "Cross the Road," merchandise like T-shirts and downloadable cellphone ring tones. Burger King is owned by the Texas Pacific Group, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.
The Chicken Fries campaign seeks to emulate two successful efforts last year in which Crispin Porter used some nontraditional media, including a Web site called subservientchicken.com, to entice consumers into trying new Burger King chicken items.
Coqroq looks like the "Equate" or "HyTop" version of GWAR. GWAR would probably be one of my last choices as spokesman for a food item. But strangely Coqroq has done a fine job of raising the status of Burger King in my top of mind awareness.
Posted by: Sixlegged | August 01, 2005 at 08:41 AM
Ah, yes, GWAR - I used to wait on them at the Village Cafe in Richmond, Virginia.
So BK is top of mind, but will you actually EAT the stuff? That is the question!
Posted by: aliza/babyfruit | August 01, 2005 at 09:22 PM