h of the loss was attributed to McDonald's concomitant increase in share (Landler and DeGeorge, 1990). At the time the campaign was introduced, Burger King sales were reported to have "stagnated at about $1 million for each store versus about $1.5 million for industry leader McDonald's" (Sanchez, 1989, p. 6). Burger King was also suffering from a more generalized image problem, as evidenced by a corporate spokesman's comment that "it does no good to attract new customers if 'the restaurant bathroom is dirty'" (Sanchez, 1989, p. 6). Industry observers, taking note of the slogan, described attention to internal store operations as long overdue, and initial industry reaction to the break the rules slogan characterized the chain's efforts as "buying time."
"They think that clever and cutesy ads will fix their
operations," said Ron Paul, president of Technomic, a
Chicago food industry consulting firm. "Well, advertising
won't." . . . William Norton, a Minneapolis based fast food
consultant, said Burger King has also failed to come up with
substantial new offerings and has suffered from a close
association with microwave ovens used to reheat meals.
"That's a definite negative," said Norton. "Other chains
microwave their food, but they don't do it right in front of
your face and make you watch it." "I don't think they have
an advertising problem," said Norton. "I suppose it's more
of an immediate fix for them. They are doing anything they
can to keep the boat afloat and buy some time to do other
things" that they need to do (Sanchez, 1989, p. 6).
Such evidence of substantive problems suggests that Burger King, described as "troubled," had to upgrade both image and hands on operations. Advertising would therefore have to explain to the market the scope of its efforts on the market's behalf if Burger King were to...