"the king" news and stories

Fanpop came up with the brilliant, although somewhat unsettling by its very nature, idea of determining the creepiest fast-food mascots of all time. And there have been some scary ones. Number one on the list is The King, the Burger King mascot who seems to spend the majority of his time lurking, creeping, sneaking and turning people off actually visiting the restaurant for fear of encountering him. The other dubious icons on their list include the "Quiznos Rat/Hamster Thing," The Dominos Noid, Jack (from Jack in the Box), Grimace, Colonel Sanders, Mister Softee, Modern Ronald McDonald, Old-School Ronald McDonald (proto-Ronald) and the Tastee Freez Twins.

I actually kind of like the commercials that star Jack, especially when compared to other fast food commercials. The standard of writing is higher and Jack's delivery is usually great. The other choices, however, all seem like they deserve to be here. Anyone have a favorite from these contenders?

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I admit that I did not think it was possible for the King, the strangely masked man of Burger King TV commercial fame, to get any creepier. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Burger King is promoting Sneak King, an inexpensive and ad-laden Xbox 360 game that features - you guessed it - the King. Instead of standing around and fraternizing with attractive women, he hides, creeps and sneaks around the virtual world in which he lives, jumping out from behind objects to force burgers on unsuspecting people. The image of being stalked by the King (as seen in the above trailer) is enough to make you sleep with the lights on just to be on the safe side.

The only reason to buy the game ($3.99 at Burger King) is (a) if you just shelled out for an Xbox 360, don't have the budget for better games and are really desperate to play it or (b) you have some crazy fantasy about being the King, which who the player controls in the game. If you're buying it for the first reason, that's somewhat understandable. If it's the second...

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As far as I understand it, the purpose of advertising is to sell more products, not to frighten the customers. Unfortunately, Burger King's advertising department does not seem to have gotten this message. During the Super Bowl yesterday, Burger King unveiled a new, multi-million dollar ad featuring its skin-crawlingly creepy, plastic-headed mascot, the King. As though his mere presence was not enough, the commercial consisted of women dressed as the salad toppings on a hamburger - lettuce, onion, tomato, etc. - dancing around before being rather unceremoniously tossed into a pile which, coincidentally, managed to resemble a hamburger. The "tasty and eye popping" women/toppings are ogled by the king during and after the formation of the "burger."

Creepy, sexist and, no doubt, offensive to more than a few people, does Burger King really see an increase in sales after airing ads like this? I would prefer to see a commercial that showed the actual food product, not a strange Whopperette version of it.

You can view the whole ad, if you are so inclined, at Adjab.

[Image from Adjab]