Burger King Kuwait Enlists Cristiano Ronaldo Lookalike for Plant Based Campaign

Kuwait, a market where meat is king, started witnessing a change of behaviour as the youth embraced plant-based lifestyles. Many brands began acting on it, but few were able to stand the test of time and meat lovers' cynical judgement about taste.

And they were right to judge. Plant-based meat options were notoriously disappointing and often failed to hit the same spot as their meat equivalents, leaving a traditionally meat-dominated region with no options for the growing number of flexitarian consumers.

Burger King was launching their Plant-Base Range, a full menu of three different products, and the market didn't seem ready for it.

So how could M&C Saatchi launch the range in an exciting but authentic way for the consumer?

As a brand opportunity, Burger King has been known for its ‘Taste is king’ since 1954. Hence, the actual task in launching the Plant-Based Range was to get all meat lovers on our side first by addressing their biggest barrier when it comes to veggie meat: the compromise of taste.

M&C Saatchi decided to challenge the conventional communication across the category by introducing our campaign concept: 'As Good As The Original.

To get to the Kuwaiti's hearts and stomachs, M&C Saatchi went for the killer entertaining combo (based on statistics of course): Comedy, drama and football.

Through an unusual but clever mockumentary, M&C introduced the story of Cristiano Ronaldo's doppelganger, a naïve but overconfident guy who really believes he is as good as his famous lookalike. 

As the story unfolds, we see how he pushes himself to an almost delusional point where we can clearly notice that his reality does not match his thoughts. Building a story in which only at the end, we reveal our concept: 'Some things just aren't as good as the original, Burger King's new Plant-Based Whopper is.' Creating a fun and unexpected comparison between our character and the product.

"The level and quality of the idea and output were outstanding, the feedback we have gotten from the market is that they believed this campaign was done by Burger King international and that it was adapted locally. We were able to achieve a global standard content for a local market, besides exceeding our product sales targets." Zeinab Najjar – associate marketing director.

"Our biggest challenge was to disrupt the conventional communication of the category in the region with an idea that could be equally locally and globally relevant. We are proud to see this idea begin to gain international recognition as being the only film from the region to win a Caples award in the TV and advertising category." Camila Venegas and Silvia Vera, creative leads, MC Saatchi UAE.

This entertainment piece was the kick-off of Burger King’s Plant-Based Range campaign with the promise that it would be exactly as good as the original range, and it was.