The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2025
Burger King feeds Brazil's lawyers its new BK TASTE before McDonald's can sue
Launching a burger that resembled McDonald's BIG TASTY, Burger King gave Brazil's lawyers a free BK TASTE before anyone could cry copy.
Burger King (Brazil)
What it had to solve
Burger King Brazil was launching the BK TASTE, a sandwich that clearly resembled McDonald's BIG TASTY — an open invitation to be accused of copying. The brand's twist: BIG TASTY was itself created to imitate the Whopper, so the new burger was really a copy of Burger King's own icon.
How it works
Burger King Brazil was about to launch the BK TASTE when someone noticed the problem: the new sandwich looked a lot like McDonald's BIG TASTY, which made it easy to attack as a copy. Before anyone could make that accusation stick, the brand decided to raise it itself.
The reframe was that BIG TASTY had been created to imitate the Whopper — so a burger resembling BIG TASTY was actually copying Burger King, not McDonald's. To prove the point, the brand handed the burger to the only audience whose verdict mattered: lawyers.
The launch film, by AlmapBBDO, cast an actor as the sandwich's defence lawyer, and a three-day promotion ran from January 13 to 15, 2025 at 240 BK drive-thrus. Any lawyer showing an OAB bar card received a free BK TASTE, one per CPF, while stocks lasted.
The result was coverage instead of controversy: Brazil's press reported lawyers picking up free sandwiches across the country, and the campaign's idea of tasting before accusing entered the D&AD awards archive.
Why it lands
- It replaced denial with demonstration: the free tasting was the defence, and every lawyer who accepted a burger became a witness for its taste.
- The reframe was the clever part — if BIG TASTY copied the Whopper, then BK TASTE copied Burger King itself, leaving nothing for McDonald's to sue over.
- The mechanics produced stories: more than 1.4 million lawyers in Brazil, 240 drive-thrus and a three-day window gave national press a concrete event to cover.
- It risked the product honestly — a free taste could have confirmed the copycat charge — which made the stunt credible rather than defensive.
What it did
The copycat threat became the launch story: instead of a lawsuit rumour, Brazil's national press covered lawyers queuing for a free taste of the disputed burger. The work is filed in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
When an accusation is coming, don't deny it — hand the dispute to the public literally: let the people who would judge the thing try it first, and the objection becomes the campaign.
Since then
The giveaway ended on January 15, 2025, and Burger King never disclosed how many sandwiches were handed out. No launch-time lawsuit appeared in coverage, and the film and activation were later filed in the D&AD awards archive. It continued Burger King Brazil's habit of turning rivalry with McDonald's into public stunts, following its 2021 social posts about the Big Tasty's resemblance to the Whopper.
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