The campaign’s goal was to remind and reignite consumers’ passion for our marquee product, the Whopper. Historically we know that BK’s target audience has a huge passion for NASCAR, so tying in with Tony Stewart seemed like a natural fit. However, consumers also have a natural distrust of celebrity “endorsements”. Is s/he really pushing the product because they believe in it, or is it all about the paycheck? To debunk this commonly held perception in a unique and impactful way we decided to put Tony to the test. A live, online, polygraph test. The end result was not only a huge drive to the BK.com website and Twitter buzz generator, but one of the most successful impressions impacts in Facebook history.

Using shameless shills Carrot Top and Eric Estrada, the seeds were sown for the moment of truth. Sweepstakes Banners allowed fans to “Win a Tony Stewart Experience” and drove consumers to BKRacing.com. A Facebook Event page was created to allow fans to engage with the campaign, RSVP to the event and submit questions for Tony. Finally, during the live online polygraph test Tony answered 36 consumer-generated, and potentially embarrassing questions. Ending with “Do you love the Whopper”, his “Yes” answer was confirmed accurate by the lie detector. The truth was out.

By the end of the campaign, traffic to BK.com increased by 16%. Impressions generated on Facebook were 50% more than goal, with one of the highest engagement rates in FB history. 65% of people who RSVPed to the Facebook event logged in to watch the event live. PR mentions increased 166% during the week of the polygraph event. There were tens of thousands of tweets and blogs that the topic even earned its own hashtag. 25% incremental increase to general BK buzz.