Burger King’s vegan chicken confuses kids in cute ad: “Does this count as a vegetable?”

Burger King’s new ad campaign for its vegan chicken options plays on the fact that kids ask for the worst things. Is a cookie jar still a cookie jar if it’s empty? Why did Dad spend so much money on a car that only had the front windows open?

Important questions children innocently explore before an ad zooms in on Burger King’s plant-based options.

Burger King

“These are the perfect days to try Burger King’s plant-based long chicken that daddy says is just like … a long chicken,” the child narrator said of the sandwich, also known as the “Chicken Royale,” before adding, “What is it? Counts? Like vegetables?”

This new ad is the third installment of Burger King’s “Confusing Times” campaign that explores its plant-based options against the backdrop of thought-provoking, sometimes confusing, questions.

“This year’s campaign harkens back to the roots of Burger King’s jump into the plant-based segment, which began with the plant-based Whopper and has been steadily expanding ever since,” Sabrina Ferretti, Burger King’s head of international marketing, said in a statement.

“With Colombia adding plant-based long chicken and nuggets, and countries in Europe offering most of their sandwiches and nuggets with plant-based options, we’re covering everything from plant-based Whopper Jr.,” Ferretti said. “This chapter of Confused Times does a great job of reinventing the platform while serving more guest needs.”

The ad will run first in Latin America before expanding globally where it will be adapted to regional markets and run on radio and print.

Burger King gets into plant-based chicken

While Burger King began its foray into the plant-based space in 2019 with beef alternatives via the Impossible Whopper, the fast-food chain has greatly expanded its offerings globally and in terms of menu diversity, especially when it comes to plant-based chicken.

Burger King

Last year, Burger King explored its first plant-based chicken option domestically with Impossible Foods with a limited launch of the Original Chicken Sandwich at participating Cincinnati, OH locations. Although the sandwich—which was available vegan without mayonnaise—has not yet expanded nationally, Burger King currently offers vegan chicken options in other markets.

In Latin America, the chain works with The Nut Company, a Chilean company that uses plant-derived ingredients to approximate animal products at the molecular level using artificial intelligence. NotCo has supplied plant-based patties for Burger King’s meatless Whoppers in Chile since 2020. Last year, Burger King expanded its partnership with new NotChicken items, including King Vegetal, King Italiano Vegetal and plant-based nuggets.

In many global markets, including Europe, Burger King primarily works with The Vegetarian Butcher, a company owned by Unilever. Last year, Burger King became the first fast-food chain in the UK to introduce vegan chicken nuggets.

“Adapting to customer preferences is a key focus at Burger King,” Burger King UK chief executive Alasdair Murdoch said in a statement at the time. “We are committed to empowering our guests to make good decisions about what they eat and drink and to provide them with informed choices.”

Burger King

Since then, Burger King UK—which aims to make half its menu plant-based by 2030—has expanded to other exciting options, including the addition of three new vegan bacon cheeseburgers this year.

Burger King’s vegan ad campaign

These days, Burger King is doing more than flipping burgers. The international chain is flipping the script on animal-based meat as the norm. Last year in Austria, Burger King ran a campaign titled “Meat Option”. Here, plant-based meat was assumed to be the norm while animal-derived meat was not—flipping the common narrative on its head. As part of the campaign, Burger King Austria customers who ordered a burger were given a choice of “regular or meat-based?”

Burger King

“At Burger King, we are making meatless indulgence a permanent element on our menu, because meat no longer comes naturally to everyone,” said Jan-Christoph Kuster, chief marketing officer of TQSR Group, the Austrian master franchisee of the Burger King brand, then a German-language said in the statement.

“With the provocative question ‘Normal or meat?’ We want to show that we take our customers and their needs seriously,” says Kuster. “Because from now on, we serve almost our entire range [as plant-based]”

Burger King also celebrated the UK’s National Burger Day last year with a “Whopper Swapper” campaign, giving away 10,000 plant-based Whoppers and Vegan Royals to encourage customers to swap their beef burgers for a plant-based alternative.

Burger King

And it’s not just Burger King’s ad campaign that’s changing the narrative. In recent years, Burger King has explored plant-based pop-ups around the world, transforming the UK, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Chile, Costa Rica and more into vegan paradises with meatless burgers, chicken-free sandwiches and more.

“Our ultimate goal is to position Burger King as the leader and go-to for the best-tasting plant-based food in the quick-service restaurant industry,” Ferretti previously told VegNews.