Burger King Kingdom

The Burger King Kingdom was the name of Burger King's answer to McDonaldland during the mid-1970s. In the late-1980s, the Burger King Kingdom characters were largely phased out. A Burger King Kingdom commercial resurfaced on the Retro Junk website.

Characters

• The Burger King: A bearded king that ruled the Burger King Kingdomand he kicks total ass!
• Sir Shakes-A-Lot: A knight with a craving for milkshakes
• The Burger Thing: A large hamburger puppet
• The Duke of Doubt: The Burger King's arch-nemesis
• The Wizard of Fries: A robot powered by french fries

Return of the King

In 2004, the Burger King character returned in a series of ads for Burger King. The King has been used mainly in a form similar to a movie monster in recent times. The ads quickly caught on with the public and the King has since become very popular.

On the Internet, the King is something of a fad, frequently portrayed as a fiendish villain with malicious intents (and/or accompanied with the catchphrase "Where is your God now?").

In October of 2005, Burger King began to sell Halloween masks resembling the King. The masks quickly sold out.

Although the advertisements were largely only in North America, adverts featuring the King surfaced on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom as well as in Germany in early January 2006. The King appeared not to catch on with the UK market and was seemingly retired there after only two brief commercials (featuring him at an ATM and as a pole dancer). However, he returned in summer 2006 as part of Burger King's Superman Returns campaign.

The King's popularity was so phenomenal, that he has a cameo appearance in Fight Night Round 3 for the Xbox 360, released in February, 2006.

In July 2006, a cartoon hand-puppet version of the King resurfaced after a long absence from kid's advertising.

NFL commercials

Many of the recent commercials featuring The Burger King have been created by digitally altering classic NFL game footage. The King is superimposed over players, making it appear as though the King was involved in the play. Some of the players the King has been imposed over include Steve Young, Deion Sanders, and Moe Williams (receiving a lateral pass from Randy Moss). He has also been depicted performing the Lambeau Leap and dumping Gatorade on the head of former Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula.

Larger than life?

Recently, the King has gone beyond traditional television spots, and made surprise appearances in public. One good example would be his apparent affair with American television personality and model Brooke Burke. The affair paid off for Brooke's career. She went on to star in Burger King's television commercial "The Whopperettes."

External links

• weemcee - a viral video site featuring an interactive dancing Kurger Bing.
• [1] The official Whopperettes website.
• [2] A 1985 Burger King Kingdom commercial featuring the Burger King and the Duke of Doubt on Retro Junk.
• Slate.com article about the 2004 ad
• Review of three early-1980s Burger Kingdom television ads
• TV Acres: An article about the evolution of The Burger King