Wombat Mobile I should be coding or sleeping instead of this...

I just got back from McDonalds, which made me think of the Burger King commercials with the creepy king figure. I actually find those commercials kind of amusing because they definitely evoke a reaction and get people talking about them. Still, I can't set foot in a Burger King now, even though the Whopper is a far superior burger to either the Quarter Pounder or the Big Mac (which I just ate).

I'm not disturbed by much these days, but I admit that the King did get to me, in the way that the clown in Poltergeist affected me as a kid.

I realize that the commercials are supposed to be edgy and ironic, and they are, but I wish I could go back to eating Whoppers again. It's funny, I made it through Fast Food Nation and that book still didn't keep me off fast food, but this commercial managed to make me swear off BK. Now if only KFC, McDonalds, and Carl's Jr. would come up with creepy commercials, I might live longer.

I realize that I'm probably out of their target demographic with this commercial, though. I'm a 32-year-old male, so I'm probably too old, but I do eat a lot of fast food. They definitely seemed to be trying to make the commercials disturbing, sort of taking the Ronald McDonald creepiness to the next level, and they succeeded.

As for other unusual commercials, I was entertained by the subservient chicken and spong monkeys for Quiznos, but the chicken site made me stop ordering chicken sandwiches. Damn, I'm way too impressionable to advertisers. subservientchicken.com was a great website, but before that site, I used to think of my chicken sandwiches as these patty-shaped food entities that magically appeared and never associated them with chickens. Now, when I look at a chicken sandwich, my first thought is that this sandwich was once a living, breathing creature and was possibly quite funny. Then I start thinking of the images of overcrowded chicken farms and footage of people ripping the beaks off live chickens and mistreating them.

The Chicken Fight campaign from Burger King was even worse. I had this gruesome image of Burger King workers collecting the mutilated carcasses after a cockfight and making these into sandwiches.

Damn, I do miss eating Whoppers, though, the patty just tastes much better. But I'm probably healthier without them. I suspect I'll be able to eat them again in a couple of years.

To butcher The Usual Suspects line...
"Keaton always said 'I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him.' Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is The Burger King." (and Kaiser Soze)