Whopper
Encyclopedia
The Whopper sandwich is the signature hamburger
product sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King
and its Australia
n franchise Hungry Jacks. Introduced in 1957, it has undergone several reformulations including resizing and bread changes. The burger is one of the best known products in the fast food industry; it is so well known that Burger King bills itself as the Home of the Whopper in its advertising and signage.
The company markets several variants of the burger as well as other variants that are specifically tailored to meet local taste preferences or customs of the various regions and countries in which it does business. To promote continuing interest in the product, Burger King occasionally releases limited-time variants on the Whopper.
quarter-pound (113.4 g) beef
patty, sesame seed bun
, mayonnaise
, lettuce
, tomato
, pickles
, ketchup
, and sliced onion
. Optional ingredients such as processed cheese
, bacon
, mustard
, guacamole
or jalapeño
peppers may be added upon request. Regional and international condiments include BBQ sauce, salsa
and guacamole
. Burger King will also add any condiment it sells, including tartar sauce
, honey mustard, steak sauce
and hot sauce
. It is available with one, two or three beef patties and in a smaller version called the Whopper Jr, or without meat in a version called the Veggie Whopper. Additionally, Burger King has sold several different promotional varieties throughout the years as limited time offerings.
for the promotion of Microsoft
's Windows 7 operating system. The hamburger contained seven stacked beef patties and measures 13 cm (5 inches) high. It was originally planned to be available for only 7 days starting on October 22, 2009. Due to their success in selling 6,000 sandwiches within the first 4 days, Burger King decided to extend the promotion period to 16 days, ending on November 6.
The campaign was met with unexpected popularity in Japan, sparking multiple YouTube
videos and blog posts about the burger. However, the promotional effort received strong criticism from business and tech journalists. Computerworld
blogger Preston Gralla claimed that it "could be one of Microsoft
's worst promotional ideas ever."
The Pizza Burger is a burger sold exclusively at the BK Whopper Bar
location in Times Square
, New York City
in September 2010. It consists of four Whopper patties on a 9.5 inch sesame bun, sliced into six pieces and is topped with pepperoni
, mozzarella
, Tuscan pesto
and marinara sauce
. The burger contains more than the recommended daily allowance of calories for men at 2520 calories, with 144 grams of fat, 59g of which is saturated. An average Pizza Burger contains 3,780 mg of sodium, more than double the recommended daily allowance for adults. However, according to Burger King's vice president of global marketing, John Schaufelberger, the burger is not intended to feed just one person.
The Angry Whopper swaps jalapeños, "Angry Sauce" and "Angry Onions" for the pickles, ketchup and raw onions while adding pepperjack cheese
and bacon. The sandwich, originally released in Europe, made its way to the United states in 2010. The sandwich was released with a viral marketing
push created by Burger King's advertising agency at the time, Crispin Porter + Bogusky
. The two tiered program, designed to create a word-of-mouth marketing push, featured a webpage that allowed consumers to create an "Angry-gram" that could be emailed to other individuals. The form letter
format page would send an insulting email to a recipient of choice from the sender. The second part consisted of a Facebook
-oriented program where the company would issue a coupon for a free sandwich if the consumer would de-friend 10 people on their Facebook page.
The Chicken Whopper is still available in parts of Europe and the Middle East
. In the U.S., Turkey, New Zealand
, Portugal
, Italy
and Spain
it has been replaced by the TenderGrill Chicken Sandwich.
The Whopper was created in 1957 by Burger King founder James McLamore
and sold for 37 cents.
For several years in the 1980s, the weight of the Whopper was increased to 1/3 lb. The bun was also replaced by a Kaiser roll
. The Whopper reverted to the original formulation a few years later. The "Third Pound Whopper" made a return in the early 2000s, but has since been discontinued again.
The packaging has undergone many changes since its inception. Unlike McDonald's, the company never used the clamshell style box made of Styrofoam
, so when the environmental concerns over Styrofoam came to a head in the late 1980s, the company was able to tout its use of paperboard
boxes for its sandwiches. To cut back on the amount of paper that the company used, the paperboard box was fully eliminated in 1991 and was replaced with waxed paper. For a short time after BK began moving to a fresh made model (certain sandwiches are made only after being ordered instead of being pre-made ahead of time), BK used an aluminum foil wrapping similar to Wendy's
sandwich packaging.
of whether the sandwich has the ingredient or not. Represented by a binary number of 0 or 1, raised to the power of number of possible ingredients at the time, ten, thus 210 =1,024. This claim was later expanded to There are 221,184 possible ways for a customer to order a Whopper sandwich. Other slogans include It takes two hands to handle the Whopper and Burger King: Home of the Whopper.
A 2007 advertising campaign celebrating the golden anniversary
of the Whopper showed real customers in Las Vegas reacting to the false news the Whopper has been discontinued. While it was not permanently discontinued, the ad claims it was discontinued for one day. Later versions of the ads had customers receiving a Big Mac
or Wendy's
Single and their reactions to the sandwich. In-store ads, such as posters and tray-liners, attack the size and quality of the Big Mac. The campaign won the 2009 Effie Award as one of the best restaurant advertising promotions for 2007–2008.
The 2008 movie releases of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull saw a promotional tie-in
with the new Indy Whopper and the The Incredible Hulk
with the Angry Whopper.
In December 2008, Burger King purchased the rights to an advertising campaign that centered on a taste-test marketing campaign, dubbed "Whopper Virgins". The test claimed to target participants who were unaware of the existence of Burger King or McDonald's, and had never eaten a hamburger. Three remote areas of the world—Baan Khun Chang Kiean, Thailand
; Kulusuk
, Greenland
; and Budeşti
, Romania
—were targeted. In the test, the "virgins" were asked to try both the McDonald's Big Mac
and the Burger King Whopper, and give their preference, if any. According to the advertisements and accompanying mini-documentary
, the Whopper was the most popular sandwich among the test subjects.
with similar toppings but served on a bulkie roll
, while McDonald's has created at least six different versions, including the McDLT, the McLean Deluxe and the Big N' Tasty
.
(540 kcal), but is larger - 290 g vs. 214 g. Therefore, the Whopper contains fewer calories per gram than the Big Mac. The Whopper contains 231 kcal per 100 g and the Big Mac contains 252 kcal per 100 g. Cheese comes standard on the Big Mac, but is optional on the Whopper.
Similar sandwiches by other fast food restaurant
vendors
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
product sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
and its Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n franchise Hungry Jacks. Introduced in 1957, it has undergone several reformulations including resizing and bread changes. The burger is one of the best known products in the fast food industry; it is so well known that Burger King bills itself as the Home of the Whopper in its advertising and signage.
The company markets several variants of the burger as well as other variants that are specifically tailored to meet local taste preferences or customs of the various regions and countries in which it does business. To promote continuing interest in the product, Burger King occasionally releases limited-time variants on the Whopper.
Product description
The Whopper is a hamburger, consisting of a flame grilledGrilling
Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above or below.Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat quickly and meat that has already been cut into slices...
quarter-pound (113.4 g) beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
patty, sesame seed bun
Bun
A bun is a small, usually sweet, bread. Commonly they are hand-sized or smaller, domed in shape, with a flat bottom. A bun can also be a savory bread roll similar to a bap or barmcake....
, mayonnaise
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...
, lettuce
Lettuce
Lettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. It is eaten either raw, notably in salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes, or cooked, as in Chinese cuisine in which the stem becomes just as important...
, tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
, pickles
Pickled cucumber
A pickled cucumber is a cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution and left to ferment for a period of time, by either immersing the cucumbers in an acidic solution or through souring by lacto-fermentation.-Gherkin:A gherkin is not only...
, ketchup
Ketchup
Ketchup is a sweet-and-tangy condiment typically made from tomatoes, vinegar, sugar or high-fructose corn syrup and an assortment of...
, and sliced onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
. Optional ingredients such as processed cheese
Processed cheese
Processed cheese, process cheese, cheese slice, prepared cheese, cheese singles or cheese food is a food product made from normal cheese and sometimes other unfermented dairy ingredients, plus emulsifiers, extra salt, food colorings, or whey...
, bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
, mustard
Mustard (condiment)
Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant...
, guacamole
Guacamole
Guacamole , is an avocado-based dip that originated in Mexico. It is traditionally made by mashing ripe avocados with a molcajete with sea salt. Some recipes call for limited tomato, spicy Asian spices such as white onion, lime juice, and/or additional seasonings.-History:Guacamole was made by...
or jalapeño
Jalapeño
The jalapeño is a medium-sized chili pepper that has a warm, burning sensation when eaten. A mature jalapeño fruit is 2–3½ inches long and is commonly picked and consumed while still green, but occasionally it is allowed to fully ripen and turn crimson red...
peppers may be added upon request. Regional and international condiments include BBQ sauce, salsa
Salsa (sauce)
Salsa may refer to any type of sauce. In American English, it usually refers to the spicy, often tomato based, hot sauces typical of Mexican and Central American cuisine, particularly those used as dips. In British English, the word typically refers to salsa cruda, which is common in Mexican ,...
and guacamole
Guacamole
Guacamole , is an avocado-based dip that originated in Mexico. It is traditionally made by mashing ripe avocados with a molcajete with sea salt. Some recipes call for limited tomato, spicy Asian spices such as white onion, lime juice, and/or additional seasonings.-History:Guacamole was made by...
. Burger King will also add any condiment it sells, including tartar sauce
Tartar sauce
Tartare sauce is a creamy white sauce frequently used to season fried seafood dishes.-Composition:...
, honey mustard, steak sauce
Steak sauce
Steak sauce —brown sauce —is a generic term for a dark brown sauce commonly served as a condiment for meat.The two terms are similar but not identical...
and hot sauce
Hot sauce
Hot sauce, chili sauce or pepper sauce refers to any spicy sauce made from chili peppers and other ingredients.-Ingredients:There are many recipes for hot sauces - the common ingredient being any kind of peppers. A group of chemicals called capsaicinoids are responsible for the heat in chili peppers...
. It is available with one, two or three beef patties and in a smaller version called the Whopper Jr, or without meat in a version called the Veggie Whopper. Additionally, Burger King has sold several different promotional varieties throughout the years as limited time offerings.
Notable variants
The Windows 7 Whopper was sold in JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
for the promotion of Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Windows 7 operating system. The hamburger contained seven stacked beef patties and measures 13 cm (5 inches) high. It was originally planned to be available for only 7 days starting on October 22, 2009. Due to their success in selling 6,000 sandwiches within the first 4 days, Burger King decided to extend the promotion period to 16 days, ending on November 6.
The campaign was met with unexpected popularity in Japan, sparking multiple YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
videos and blog posts about the burger. However, the promotional effort received strong criticism from business and tech journalists. Computerworld
Computerworld
Computerworld is an IT magazine that provides information for senior IT leaders. It is published in many countries around the world under the same or similar names. Its publisher is International Data Group. Computerworld serves the needs of IT management via print and online...
blogger Preston Gralla claimed that it "could be one of Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's worst promotional ideas ever."
The Pizza Burger is a burger sold exclusively at the BK Whopper Bar
BK Whopper Bar
The BK Whopper Bar is limited service concept created by fast-food restaurant Burger King in 2009.- Format :The Whopper Bar is a concept from the company that upends its traditional fast food operations with a newer high end concept designed to compete with fast casual and casual dining restaurants...
location in Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in September 2010. It consists of four Whopper patties on a 9.5 inch sesame bun, sliced into six pieces and is topped with pepperoni
Pepperoni
Pepperoni is a spicy Italian-American variety of salami usually made from cured pork and beef, but poultry may be added, if labeled correctly, for less expensive versions. Pepperoni is characteristically soft, slightly smoky, and bright red in color...
, mozzarella
Mozzarella
Mozzarella is an Italian Traditional Speciality Guaranteed food product. The term is used for several kinds of Italian cheeses that are made using spinning and then cutting :...
, Tuscan pesto
Pesto
Pesto is a sauce originating in Genoa in the Liguria region of northern Italy , and traditionally consists of crushed garlic, basil and pine nuts blended with olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano and Fiore Sardo...
and marinara sauce
Marinara Sauce
Marinara sauce is a southern Italian tomato sauce usually made with tomatoes, garlic, herbs , and onion. However, there are many variations. Some of these include the addition of capers, olives, anchovies, and/or spices....
. The burger contains more than the recommended daily allowance of calories for men at 2520 calories, with 144 grams of fat, 59g of which is saturated. An average Pizza Burger contains 3,780 mg of sodium, more than double the recommended daily allowance for adults. However, according to Burger King's vice president of global marketing, John Schaufelberger, the burger is not intended to feed just one person.
The Angry Whopper swaps jalapeños, "Angry Sauce" and "Angry Onions" for the pickles, ketchup and raw onions while adding pepperjack cheese
Pepperjack cheese
Pepper jack cheese is a derivative of Monterey Jack that includes spicy hot peppers for flavor. Spicy, delicate and buttery, pepper jack cheese is semi-soft and open textured with a slightly tart flavor....
and bacon. The sandwich, originally released in Europe, made its way to the United states in 2010. The sandwich was released with a viral marketing
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
push created by Burger King's advertising agency at the time, Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Crispin Porter + Bogusky , a member of publicly-traded MDC Partners, is an advertising agency that currently employs around 1,000 people. It was founded in 1965 by Sam Crispin.. Crispin then became partners with Chuck Porter and Alex Bogusky...
. The two tiered program, designed to create a word-of-mouth marketing push, featured a webpage that allowed consumers to create an "Angry-gram" that could be emailed to other individuals. The form letter
Form letter
A form letter is a letter written from a template, rather than being specially composed for a specific recipient. The most general kind of form letter consists of one or more regions of boilerplate text interspersed with one or more substitution placeholders.Although form letters are generally...
format page would send an insulting email to a recipient of choice from the sender. The second part consisted of a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
-oriented program where the company would issue a coupon for a free sandwich if the consumer would de-friend 10 people on their Facebook page.
Discontinued variants
- The Chicken Whopper (mayonnaiseMayonnaiseMayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...
, lettuceLettuceLettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. It is eaten either raw, notably in salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes, or cooked, as in Chinese cuisine in which the stem becomes just as important...
and tomatoTomatoThe word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
with a grilled chicken fillet) - The Chicken Whopper, Jr. (smaller chicken fillet and bun, smaller amount of toppings)
- The Quarter pound cheeseburger - A copy of the Quarter PounderQuarter PounderThe Quarter Pounder is a hamburger product sold by international fast food chain McDonald's, originally containing a patty with a precooked weight of a quarter of a pound .-History:...
with ketchup, onions, pickle and mustard.
The Chicken Whopper is still available in parts of Europe and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. In the U.S., Turkey, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
it has been replaced by the TenderGrill Chicken Sandwich.
History
James McLamore
James Whitman McLamore was co-founder of the Burger King fast food franchise with David Edgerton. McLamore attended Northfield Mount Hermon School before matriculating at Cornell University....
and sold for 37 cents.
For several years in the 1980s, the weight of the Whopper was increased to 1/3 lb. The bun was also replaced by a Kaiser roll
Kaiser roll
The Kaiser roll, also called a Vienna roll or a hard roll , is a kind of bread roll, invented in Vienna, and thought to have been named to honor Emperor Franz Joseph...
. The Whopper reverted to the original formulation a few years later. The "Third Pound Whopper" made a return in the early 2000s, but has since been discontinued again.
The packaging has undergone many changes since its inception. Unlike McDonald's, the company never used the clamshell style box made of Styrofoam
Styrofoam
Styrofoam is a trademark of The Dow Chemical Company for closed-cell currently made for thermal insulation and craft applications. In 1941, researchers in Dow's Chemical Physics Lab found a way to make foamed polystyrene...
, so when the environmental concerns over Styrofoam came to a head in the late 1980s, the company was able to tout its use of paperboard
Paperboard
Paperboard is a thick paper based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker than paper. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a basis weight above 224 g/m2, but there are exceptions. Paperboard can be single...
boxes for its sandwiches. To cut back on the amount of paper that the company used, the paperboard box was fully eliminated in 1991 and was replaced with waxed paper. For a short time after BK began moving to a fresh made model (certain sandwiches are made only after being ordered instead of being pre-made ahead of time), BK used an aluminum foil wrapping similar to Wendy's
Wendy's
Wendy's is an international fast food chain restaurant founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The company decided to move its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. It has been owned by Triarc since 2008...
sandwich packaging.
Advertising
One of the original slogans of the Whopper advertised by Burger King was There are 1024 ways to have a Whopper; the claim is based on an exponential functionExponential function
In mathematics, the exponential function is the function ex, where e is the number such that the function ex is its own derivative. The exponential function is used to model a relationship in which a constant change in the independent variable gives the same proportional change In mathematics,...
of whether the sandwich has the ingredient or not. Represented by a binary number of 0 or 1, raised to the power of number of possible ingredients at the time, ten, thus 210 =1,024. This claim was later expanded to There are 221,184 possible ways for a customer to order a Whopper sandwich. Other slogans include It takes two hands to handle the Whopper and Burger King: Home of the Whopper.
A 2007 advertising campaign celebrating the golden anniversary
Wedding anniversary
-Official recognition:In the Commonwealth realms, one can receive a message from the monarch for 60th, 65th, and 70th wedding anniversaries, and any wedding anniversary after that...
of the Whopper showed real customers in Las Vegas reacting to the false news the Whopper has been discontinued. While it was not permanently discontinued, the ad claims it was discontinued for one day. Later versions of the ads had customers receiving a Big Mac
Big Mac
The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by McDonald's, an international fast food restaurant chain. It is one of the company's signature products...
or Wendy's
Wendy's
Wendy's is an international fast food chain restaurant founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The company decided to move its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. It has been owned by Triarc since 2008...
Single and their reactions to the sandwich. In-store ads, such as posters and tray-liners, attack the size and quality of the Big Mac. The campaign won the 2009 Effie Award as one of the best restaurant advertising promotions for 2007–2008.
The 2008 movie releases of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull saw a promotional tie-in
Tie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
with the new Indy Whopper and the The Incredible Hulk
The Incredible Hulk (film)
The Incredible Hulk is a 2008 superhero action film based on the Marvel Comics character the Hulk. It is directed by Louis Leterrier and stars Edward Norton as Dr. Bruce Banner. It is the second film to be released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe...
with the Angry Whopper.
In December 2008, Burger King purchased the rights to an advertising campaign that centered on a taste-test marketing campaign, dubbed "Whopper Virgins". The test claimed to target participants who were unaware of the existence of Burger King or McDonald's, and had never eaten a hamburger. Three remote areas of the world—Baan Khun Chang Kiean, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
; Kulusuk
Kulusuk
Kulusuk is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland, located on an island of the same name. The settlement population of 286 is quite uncommon for an Inuit settlement in Greenland with many Danes choosing to live there, due to the airport...
, Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
; and Budeşti
Budesti
Budeşti is a small provincial town in Călăraşi County, approximately 30 km south-east of Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Three villages are administered by the town: Aprozi, Buciumeni and Gruiu. Budeşti was the birthplace of famous Romanian violin player Ion Voicu. It has a population of...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
—were targeted. In the test, the "virgins" were asked to try both the McDonald's Big Mac
Big Mac
The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by McDonald's, an international fast food restaurant chain. It is one of the company's signature products...
and the Burger King Whopper, and give their preference, if any. According to the advertisements and accompanying mini-documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
, the Whopper was the most popular sandwich among the test subjects.
Competitive products
Because of the wide knowledge of the Whopper in the public marketplace, competitors such as McDonald's and Wendy's have attempted to create a corresponding Whopper-style burger, often nicknamed a Whopper Stopper. Wendy's created the Big ClassicBig Classic
The Big Classic sandwich was a hamburger sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Wendy's. The sandwich was intended to present a larger, meatier burger that appealed to the 18-36 year old male demographic that desired a "heartier" product...
with similar toppings but served on a bulkie roll
Bulkie roll
A bulkie roll or bulkie is a New England regional variety of sandwich roll. Sandwiches made with bulkie rolls are very common in area delicatessens, restaurants, and institutional food services. Bulkie rolls are larger and firmer than hamburger buns. The crust is usually slightly crisp or crunchy,...
, while McDonald's has created at least six different versions, including the McDLT, the McLean Deluxe and the Big N' Tasty
Big N' Tasty
The Big N’ Tasty is a hamburger sold by the international fast food chain McDonald's . It is designed to compete with the Burger King Whopper sandwich...
.
Nutritional comparison
The Whopper (670 kcal) has more calories than McDonald's Big MacBig Mac
The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by McDonald's, an international fast food restaurant chain. It is one of the company's signature products...
(540 kcal), but is larger - 290 g vs. 214 g. Therefore, the Whopper contains fewer calories per gram than the Big Mac. The Whopper contains 231 kcal per 100 g and the Big Mac contains 252 kcal per 100 g. Cheese comes standard on the Big Mac, but is optional on the Whopper.
See also
- BK XXLBK XXLThe BK XXL line of sandwiches is a family of larger, 1/2 pound double cheeseburgers sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King in the European and Middle Eastern markets...
line - BK Crown Jewels lineBK Crown Jewels lineBK Crown Jewels line was a line of chicken sandwiches and hamburgers sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King in the New Zealand Market...
Similar sandwiches by other fast food restaurant
Fast food restaurant
A fast food restaurant, also known as a Quick Service Restaurant or QSR within the industry itself, is a specific type of restaurant characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service...
vendors
- McDonald'sMcDonald'sMcDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
Big N' TastyBig N' TastyThe Big N’ Tasty is a hamburger sold by the international fast food chain McDonald's . It is designed to compete with the Burger King Whopper sandwich... - McDonald's McLean Deluxe
- Wendy'sWendy'sWendy's is an international fast food chain restaurant founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The company decided to move its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. It has been owned by Triarc since 2008...
Big ClassicBig ClassicThe Big Classic sandwich was a hamburger sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Wendy's. The sandwich was intended to present a larger, meatier burger that appealed to the 18-36 year old male demographic that desired a "heartier" product... - Carl's Jr.Carl's Jr.Carl's Jr. is an American fast-food restaurant chain located mostly in the Western and Southwestern United States. The first store has opened in Canada in Kelowna, BC. They are in the process of expanding to Mexico, Malaysia, Denmark, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Russia, Vietnam,...
's Six Dollar Burger - Hardee'sHardee'sHardee's is a restaurant chain, located mostly in the Southeast and Midwestern regions of the United States. It has evolved through several corporate ownerships since its establishment in 1960. It is currently owned and operated by CKE Restaurants. Along with its sibling restaurant chain, Carl's...
Monster Thickburger - List of sandwiches