Burger King Germany has come up with another way to drive app downloads and troll McDonald’s at the same time.
Tied to the release of the It sequel, “Escape the Clown” encourages people to download the BK app and then scan an ad inside a print magazine distributed in McDonald’s locations. The scan generates a one-cent Whopper coupon and directions to the nearest Burger King, but it also starts a countdown clock—meaning people have to leave the McDonald’s and head to Burger King ASAP if they want to redeem their nearly free Whopper in time.
For last year’s “Whopper Detour” in the U.S., Burger King geo-fenced 14,000 McDonald’s locations and delivered Whopper coupons via the app whenever users were in the vicinity.
Has Interpublic revealed its next CEO?
Interpublic has seemingly revealed the heir apparent to CEO Michael Roth, with its promotion of Philippe Krakowsky to the new position of chief operating officer.
Krakowsky, 57, was most recently CEO of Mediabrands, as well as chief strategy and chief talent officer across IPG. He’ll retain the latter two posts and remain chair of Mediabrands, with Daryl Lee becoming Mediabrands CEO.
The Wall Street Journal describes Krakowsky as Roth’s right-hand man since arriving at IPG in 2002. Roth, 73, told the paper that Krakowsky’s promotion “certainly puts him in a strong position” to take over at Interpublic. Roth would not comment on timing, but the WSJ reported that the change could come by late next year.
Election ad from a former spy
Valerie Plame became a household name in the early 2000s, when she was working covertly in the Middle East and her name was leaked to media by Scooter Libby, chief of staff to then vice-president Dick Cheney.
Plame is now running for congress in New Mexico as a Democrat, and on Monday released an action-packed campaign ad that is as different from Canadian campaign ads as, well, Canada is from America. While our Prime Minister rides a bus with the common folk, Plame races a Chevy Camaro backwards through the desert like a stunt driver from a Jason Bourne movie.
While driving the car backwards—a metaphor for how she feels the country is moving under Donald Trump—Plame reminds viewers of her backstory as an undercover CIA operative, protecting America from rogue states and terrorists until being betrayed by Libby (who was pardoned by president Trump last year). “Mr. President I’ve got a few scores to settle,” she says.
