Is Burger King selling sex appeal or breakfast?

December 11th, 2009 (8:37am) Alisha Paul

While I would never claim to label myself as a feminist, nor would I say that I am easily offended - I must confess that I have lost some respect for Burger King after coming across its new U.K. promotion featuring a 20-something female “shaking her bits to the hits” in The World’s First Guilt Free Showercam.

The fast food chain has consistently made favourable headlines in the social media space in the last few years with everything from Subservient Chicken to a live user-generated polygraph test in the Truth About Tony promotion.

Burger King U.K. is targeting men aged 18 and older with the age restricted microsite, inviting them to watch and interact with the bikini-clad woman. The site includes features such as free vouchers for glorious mornings, videos, a chance to win a date with BK’s shower babe and a place for participants to choose what bikini the woman wears and what song she sings the following day.

“Our showercam gives hungry Brits the chance to watch the BK Shower Girl singing in the shower every day to help them work up an appetite for our fantastic new breakfast range,” said Sarah Power, marketing director U.K. for Burger King, in a statement.

Burger King explained the blatant male bias of the campaign through its own research which showed that breakfast is a male-centric audience for Burger King and that it doesn’t resonate as well with women.

We all recognize that sex sells - and Burger King has certainly exploited that with this campaign. They may however, have altered some customers opinions about their tactics. Did voyeurism just become a marketing tool?

The World’s First Guilt Free Showercam website, Singing in the Shower was developed by Pancentric Digital and Cow PR devised the campaign.