August 12, 2004

The Angus Diet. Burger King is famous for its Subservient Chicken "viral" marketing campaign. But their advertisements for the new Angus Burger up the ante, with a 139 page advertisement ("book") which you can download or even apparently purchase as an actual hardcover.

The campaign repeatedly emphasizes that the diet is "fake" and that Dr. Angus, the purported creator, is "not a real doctor" - would it be funnier if they played it straight? I don't think this book would be funny except within the context of the current low-carb diet craze. At least it's better than most NaNoWriMo output.

posted by combinator 20 years ago
  • One other observation: Page 46 is filled with Japanese which does at least peripherally have to do with a diet. It's probably not worth translating. But if you load the page on a sluggish PDF viewer, you will see it draw yet another page of Japanese underneath first, with different content.
  • They could quite likely get sued if they played it straight, despite it being even funnier. (Also, not liking the dig on NaNoWriMo. NaNo is a great event which gets people creating art, when they otherwise would probably be wasting time.)
  • Also, the Angus burger is pretty horrible. Tried it a few months ago when they were testing it in the area.
  • those commercials annoy the hell out of me on TV--- i hate ads that assume I am so stupid that i have to be told that Dr. Angus is fake, as is the diet.
  • Hey, I know a couple of friends who wrote NaNoWriMo novels and I enjoyed them. Sorry to offend. I guess NaNoWriMo was the first thing I thought of when I was faced with a book-as-PDF.
  • 1. "NaNoWriMo" may be a Good Thing, but for the love of god, that abbreviated nickname - NaNoWriMo - makes me want to retch. 2. I've had the Angus burger. The Angus burger is my friend. And you, MonkeyFilter, are no Angus burger. In other words -- I like 'em! And the ad campaign - well, I don't recall seeing any ads, but when I stopped in to BK yesterday, they had little placards on the tables promoting the "Angus Diet." Cute.
  • What's with all the angus stuff lately? Could one really tell the difference between a BK burger made with angus beef versus some other cow? I like how "Dr. Angus" starts channeling JFK partway through that one ad.
  • Yes. The angus burger has a different texture and taste.
  • I downloaded the book. I "flicked" through it. I wouldn't take the time to read it if I got a free burger out of it. Who is so bored that they take the time to read a 139 page advertisement that forces "this is a fake diet" down your throat every three sentences? Who thought this would be a great idea for marketing a piece of crap fastfood? That said, with the publishing industry dying a slow, painful (for the rest of us) death, I think we'll see more sponsored writing projects. Hopefully they will be a little subtler than Dick Angus.
  • Good day, heard the word Angus, excuse me while I scootch past you, jolly good, I'm just tainting this thread with a little recent mad cow news... don't mind me, thank you, excuse me, have a superb day...
  • well this has nothing to do with the thread, but thanks combinator for inadvertently helping me find out about NaNoWriMo (I agree that nickname is terrible) as you monkeys have perhaps guessed, I am all fired up & plan to participate (after all I am already "seriously" writing two novels right now...) should I "suceed" I will keep you all posted... if you care...
  • I can't believe that no one has removed the "g" from any of their signage for this sandwich yet.
  • as a vegetarian who hasn't been in a burger king in seven years I feel I have to say that I'll stick to eating the NaNoWriMo output, it's higher in fiber.
  • I've heard of pranksters removing the "g" from the signs at Black Angus restaurants. IIRC, some vegetarian groups encouraged people to go to BK and buy the veggie burger to encourage more vegetarian fast food offerings.
  • Our local Black Angus restaurant had the G stolen so often that they gave up replacing it and just painted the G straight onto the wall.
  • (Four-thousandth thread! Happy happy day! La, la loopy loo, doobie doobie dee!)