Cannes honors Whopperettes

Crispin Porter + Bogusky's Whopperettes campaign (blogged earlier by Toxic Shock here) was honored at Cannes' advertising festival. Their website design and execution took home a Gold Cyberlion.

Still think it was all a bit over the top, but I suppose it was clever and well-executed. Hopefully this will be the end of the "woman as ingredient" objectification.

Whopperettes!

Busby Berkeley would have been proud: Burger King splashed out recently with a huge ad campaign that aired on no other night than the Super Bowl, and has a tie-in website. Each ingredient is represented by a woman in costume, and man, those costumes look elaborate and heavy!

The website itself is a little creepy-- you're prompted to enter your name, which the site actually addresses you by with a creepy voice-over if you're idle too long. You can then customize which ingredients you want on your own Whopper, and then watch the Whopperettes assemble it. A little much, perhaps. Makes you wonder how many people will visit the site, will remember Whopper vs. Big Mac, etc. The customization features fits in nicely with BK's current slogan "Have it Your Way," even if it is a tad Big Brother-esque.

Burger King's campaign is fun, and while it takes objectifying women to new heights (they're not just women, they're ingredients!) it seems to be more in the spirit of play than of actually believing women are all that vapid. Kudos on the art direction.