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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Short and Sweet

Joe Posnanski fears The King, too

Posted by Jonathan Bender on Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 10:30 AM

burger.king.king.092309.jpg

It's nice to know you're not alone when it comes to the irrational fear of waking up next to The King -- the ever-smiling mascot for Burger King.

In the recent blog post "Creepy Kings," Kansas City Star/Sports Illustrated writer Joe Posnanski gets at the heart of why The King's mirth is so anxiety-inducing:

The reason you don't want to go to bed before him is because he will be in your eerily darkened room when you are mostly naked and he will blow an airhorn in the middle of the night or team up with someone to dump feathers on your head while he blows a leaf blower at you. And then the King will laugh and laugh and laugh without moving his mouth.
In essence, he is a pranking boogeyman to Posnanski -- and that sounds about right for a mascot with a frozen smile.

I was always scared of the earlier campaign that encouraged people to "wake up with The King." The deep-voiced repetition of meat and cheese to describe the Double Croissanwich while a man shared an awkward hand-contact moment with The King was simply unsettling.

But there's good news for Posnanski and others who are dreading the return of The King's Halloween masks. He might not be a marketing presence for much longer.

Burger King's Chief Marketing Officer, Russ Klein, recently announced that he was taking a leave of absence. A change of direction on the marketing and advertising side could mean a big break from The King. If the King is dethroned, perhaps we'll all sleep better at night.

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