Advertising during the pandemic feels rife with contention: too lighthearted and it could seem deeply insensitive; in fact advertise at all and people might accuse you of trying to profiteer from the crisis.

Yet Burger King France has given it a go with its Le Whopper de la Quarantaine poster campaign, aka the Quarantine Whopper, which shows a poster of neatly organised, shop-bought ingredients that fans can use to imitate BK’s Whopper at home. While it doesn’t reveal how to cook and put all of these ingredients together, the image-focused ad is a nod of solidarity to the country, which has been under lockdown since March 17.  

Created by Paris ad agency Buzzman, the ad was tweeted out on Burger King France’s official channel and received a wave of support and recreations with nearly 4,000 retweets and over 17,000 likes at the time of writing. As part of the campaign, Buzzman has also created similar iterations for its Le Steakhouse, Le Big Fish, and Le Big King burgers.

As Burger King’s restaurants, along with most other chains, remain closed for the foreseeable future, the ad is a great effort at a bit of light humour and reminds us of the importance of staying home during this time. 

Burger King has rarely been afraid to make a statement and this last year alone it’s been more and more vocal about the issues important to people, including its campaign to melt down old plastic toys from its kid’s meals and to stop offering them going forward; Burger King UK’s political dig on the side of a bus during the 2019 General Election; and Burger King US’ controversial, and let’s face it, pretty gross, campaign The Mouldy Whopper from February, which promoted its fresh food credentials by showing the world what happens to its burgers when left to age for a month. 

buzzman.eu