Burger King embraces the wiener, admitting defeat
Fast food restaurants tried to get healthy, but their customers are addicted to salt, sugar and fat
This week, after Burger King announced it would begin serving hot dogs at its 7,100 locations, the fast food world collectively scratched its hairnet.
It is, after all, Burger King.
But when a massive restaurant chain that has built its empire on a particular food decides to offer the culinary antonym of that food, you know something’s up.
Industry analysts are already applauding the chain’s strategy. Burger King will become the nation’s largest purveyor of wieners — a decision that could distinguish itself in a fast food world dominated by burgers and fries.
It’s also an admission of sorts, a move that tacitly acknowledges a failure. As sales have flagged, thanks in part to a more health conscious public, Burger King has tried to woo consumers with more healthful offerings.
And it has mostly failed.
Burger King’s lower-calorie “Satisfries,” for example, were on the market less than a year when the chain pulled the plug on the product in 2014. As it turned out, customers don’t want “healthy” fries.
Then last year, the chain said it would permanently add Chicken Fries (and their french-fry-esque calorie load) to the menu after campaigns on Facebook and Change.org called for their reinstatement. Sales rose for the first time in years.
It doesn’t take a business genius to make the connection. Unhealthful wins. So why not serve tubes of processed fat and salt — the very kind of foods that dietitians are saying we should all eat less of — to boost sales?
Burger King is hardly the only burger chain that’s tried to give its menu a whiff of dietary respectability. Anti-obesity and health advocates have pushed the chains to offer more nutritious or lower-calorie options, and to a certain extent they’ve responded. McDonald’s stopped supersizing its soda servings in 2004 and began offering more salads.
But, largely, their efforts flopped. In 1985, Wendy’s offered a small plate of cottage cheese with tomato slices, but quickly whisked it off the menu. (One of its most successful recent launches, meanwhile, was its 680-calorie Bacon Pretzel Cheeseburger.) McDonald’s discontinued its McLean Deluxe, nixed its apple and walnut salad and stopped offering carrots with Happy Meals after kids turned up their noses — even when the carrots were cut into the shapes of cartoon characters.
In an effort to capture health-minded consumers, the chains also have offered seemingly healthful salads that were actually packed with calories and fat. Burger King’s Chicken, Apple & Cranberry Garden Fresh Salad with Grilled Chicken clocks in at 850 calories, while McDonald’s new kale salad weighs in at 730, more than a double Big Mac.
So, despite health advocates’ efforts, the public continues to reach for the irresistible trifecta of salt, sugar and fat that fast food chains have perfected — and continue to deliver — in whatever form keeps people heading for the drive-through.
Is the McWienie next?
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