BK Tee Vee was

Burger King Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

-inspired advertising campaign from 1991 to 1993.

History

The campaign was created by the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

based agency

D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles was an advertising agency in the United States with 131 offices in 75 countries. The company was founded in 1906 as the D'Arcy Company in St. Louis, Missouri. Early clients included Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch. Du ...

. The original advertisements were used to promote the Burger King Every Day Value Menu and BK Dinner Baskets. The advertising program was designed as part of a back to basics plan by Burger King after a series of disappointing advertising schemes, including the failure of its 1980s '' Where's Herb?'' campaign. One of the main parts of the plan was to introduce a

value menu A value menu is a group of menu items at a fast food restaurant that are designed to be the least expensive items available. In the United States, US, the items are usually priced between $0.99 and $2.99. The portion size, and number of items i ...

in response to

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

Taco Bell Taco Bell Corp. is an American multinational chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired ...

and

Wendy's Wendy's International, LLC, is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (businessman), Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of D ...

. Many of the advertisements featured

Dan Cortese Daniel James Cortese (; born September 14, 1967) is an American actor. He played Perry Rollins on '' Veronica's Closet'' and Vic Meladeo on '' What I Like About You''. Early life and education Of Italian (Calabrese) descent, Cortese was born o ...

as Dan the Whopper Man, while others used clips from the

rap music Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

ians

Kid 'n Play Kid 'n Play is an American hip-hop duo from New York City who were most popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is composed of Christopher Reid ("Kid") and Christopher Martin ("Play") working alongside their DJ, Mark "DJ Wiz" Eastmond. B ...

's film ''

House Party A house party is a type of party held at the home of the party's host. Organization A house party might be organized several months or just a few hours in advance. News of a party may be spread by personal invitations, word of mouth, pos ...

''. The cross-promotion of the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

film ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

'' was also advertised under this promotion, as well as ''

Last Action Hero ''Last Action Hero'' is a 1993 American fantasy action comedy film directed and produced by John McTiernan and co-written by Shane Black and David Arnott. It is a satire of the action genre and associated clichés, containing several parodies ...

''. The last commercials using this campaign were to promote ''

The Nightmare Before Christmas ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (formerly known as ''Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas'') is a 1993 American stop motion Animation, animated Gothic film, gothic musical film, musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick in his f ...

''. The advertisement program was also used in the German market to promote a sandwich called the

Big Tex Big Tex is a tall figure and marketing icon of the annual State Fair of Texas held at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas, United States. The figure has become a cultural icon of Dallas and Texas. Since 1952, Big Tex has served as a cultural ambassador t ...

References

External links

BK Tee Vee Ad at ''Retro Junk''
Burger King advertising {{advertising-stub