The spooky Burger King holiday campaign lets you see a creepy clown looking like Ronald McDonald appears in the mirror.
If you are into scary movies, you will probably recall a famous horror flick released around 30 years ago about a Chicago graduate student who researches an urban legend.
It involves the scary boogeyman who materializes whenever you say "Candyman" five times in front of a mirror.
It was eventually echoed by another urban legend that became popular in the 1960s and 1970s. However, this time it involved countless suburban slumber parties where teens locked themselves in the bathroom to repeat "Bloody Mary" 13 times in front of a mirror.
What follows is another freaky apparition that will definitely spook anyone out.
This Halloween, select Burger King restaurants in Denmark and Sweden, decided to resurrect the old horror fiasco but with a surprising twist and a text accompanying the campaign that says, "But this Halloween he is back - at Burger King restrooms," according to the Washington Post.
View this post on InstagramDet sägs att en viss, numera sparkad clown visar sig om man säger ”Cancelled Clown” tre gånger framför spegel på våra toaletter. Vågar du se efter om han visar sig på din närmaste Burger King? #cancelledclown #cancelledclown #cancelledclown A post shared by Burger King Sverige (@burgerkingse) on Oct 27, 2020 at 11:30pm PDT
For the brave ones who dare, they will experience walking into a bathroom at these secret locations and say "canceled clown" three times in front of the mirror.
The sudden shutting down of the lights is followed by the appearance of a raggedy clown with eyes that glow red. The nightmarish stunt is made possible by new voice-recognition software.
The software, as reports say, was installed by a Swedish agency named INGO Stockholm. It was trained to recognize the phrase "canceled clown."
Upon hearing the words three times, it is triggered to dim the lights, make a noise, and play visual effects on a screen behind the two-way "smart mirror."
Related reports say that this stunt in Sweden and Denmark is a not so subtle reference to Ronald McDonald's current employment status. Back in 2016, the world's largest fast-food chain told Ronnie to pack up his fright wig, according to Business Insider.
Burger King Ads Featuring McDonald's
Despite massive success for its Impossible Whopper, it seems that Burger King still ranks several levels below McDonald's in annual revenue.
As it turns out, joking about an unemployed clown will not make much of a difference.
Further reports say that this year Burger King India even ran a lonely hearts ad. This one features a lonely Ronald McDonald sitting on a park bench by himself while a solo violin plays in the background.
A text follows and appears on the screen to undercut the melancholy, saying, "It sucks to be lonely. Especially on Valentine's Day." This ad's smartness comes as Burger King urges customers to get a selfie with lonely Ronnie to get a free Whopper.
These campaigns were far from being the first time Burger King has featured its rival, McDonald's, in its marketing ads.
In 2018, they launched an ad that gets customers a Whopper for just $0.01 if they went as near as 600 feet of a McDonald's location.
In another campaign as part of Helsinki Pride in Finland, Burger King unveiled posters featuring Ronald McDonald and the Burger King kissing.
