Burger ad proves a Whopper

By IRENE CHAPPLE

A new television campaign for Burger King was created in Henderson, features the Himalayas and will be screened all over Asia and the Pacific.

The campaign has left Auckland agency Lowe Worldwide bubbling.

Not only did the agency beat international competition, boasts Burger King group account director Andy Robertson, it created a snowy set in the depths of suburbia.

Lowe, which holds the national Burger King account, pitched for the project against Korean agency Oricom, Australia's Jack Watts Currie, and Saatchi & Saatchi in Singapore.

Robertson says Lowe won because of its "superior taste" tag, a concept able to be transported across different countries.

The advertisements show three explorers, trudging through snow, who finally come across a village. They are bombarded with offers of food, but carry on when they are unable to get Burger King products.

Their adventures are accompanied by The Proclaimers song I'm Gonna Be (500 miles).

The advertisements, says Robertson, show consumers' increasingly discerning tastes.

"People are becoming increasingly prepared to go past [convenience] for superior taste. Sometimes, all you want is a Whopper."

The advertisement's multinational audience - it will be shown in New Zealand, Australia, Korea, Singapore Thailand, the Philippines and Taiwan - meant no face-on speaking shots, which would be too difficult to dub.

The advertisement, to be launched this week, uses Asian and Caucasian faces to appeal to the different audiences.

The chilly setting features three cubic metres of real snow and some paper snow. But it was two weeks of post-production that created the full-blown Himalayan blizzard.

Robertson says such technology would not have been available three years ago. Now, it is putting New Zealand on the international stage for quality post-production work.

"We need to aggressively chase international campaigns."