Burger wars

Prominent signage for McDonald's near a branch of Burger King in Munich. The two chains are widely considered to be the main competitors of the Burger Wars.

The Burger wars are a series of off-and-on comparative advertising campaigns consisting of mutually-targeted advertisements that highlight the intense competition between hamburger fast food chains McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and others in the United States.[1] The term first came into use during the late 1970s due to an attempt by Burger King to generate increased market and mind-share by attacking the size of bigger rival McDonald's hamburgers.[2][3]

By the mid-1980s, the constant spending on advertising began to affect the major players. In 1987, Burger King laid off more than a hundred people from its corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida, while Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's reported its first quarterly operating loss since its founding in 1969. Conversely, McDonald's operating revenue and profit increased while its market share also grew.[4] Smaller chains, such as Hardee's, worked to keep from getting caught up in the extensive financial brinkmanship by avoiding the expensive ad campaigns and by staying in smaller, more geographically limited locations.[5]

The New York Times states that the poor economy of the late 2000s and early 2010s recessionary period led to the return of the Burger Wars. Because of tightened budgets, consumers have been forced to seek value and the major fast food chains are in increasing competition for consumer dollars. The Wendy's chain has been at the forefront of the revival, airing a series of ads that feature founder Dave Thomas's daughter Melinda Lou Morse, the original "Wendy", advertising a series of new burgers and reviving its Where's the beef? advertising slogan.[6] A March 2014 report in USA Today noted that Burger King is reviving the Burger Wars, including introducing clones of the Big Mac and McRib sandwiches, in response to business declines at McDonald's.[7]

  1. ^ "McDonald's Corporation". Funding Universe. Archived from the original on 17 October 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2011. A period of aggressive advertising campaigns and price slashing in the early 1980s became known as the "burger wars."
  2. ^ Romeo, Peter (1988-12-19). "Brinker: a man with a vision". Nation's Restaurant News. Archived from the original on 2013-01-13. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
  3. ^ Lubow, Arthur (1998-04-19). "Steal This Burger". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2018-07-16. Retrieved 2007-12-04. Fast-food veterans surveying today's cutthroat competition will be reminded of the First Burger War
  4. ^ Shriver Jr., Jube (6 May 1987). "Burger Wars Taking a Bite Out of Profit". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 28 May 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2011. The nationwide burger wars, waged mostly in multimillion-dollar television commercials, are hitting some hamburger chains on the bottom line--forcing layoffs and losses.
  5. ^ Hum, Scott (25 October 1993). "Hardee's: Back to Its Roots". Adweek. Retrieved 15 January 2011. And it [Hardee's] kept its head down during the 'Burger Wars' of the early 1980s, when Burger King, McDonald's and Wendy's took on each other in expensive network TV battles.
  6. ^ Elliot, Stuart (25 September 2011). "After 27 Years, an Answer to the Question, 'Where's the Beef?". New York Times. Archived from the original on 22 December 2018. Retrieved 29 September 2011.
  7. ^ Friedman, Nicky (March 19, 2014). Burger King hits McDonald's where it hurts Archived 2016-05-12 at the Wayback Machine. USA Today. Retrieved March 19, 2014.