The Burger King brand is constantly looking for ways to create new experiences for customers that reinforce their "Be Your Way" brand positioning. Bullying is the opposite of that. When Burger King learned that 30% of students worldwide are bullied each year, we decided to create a live social experiment that proved more people would stand up for a bullied sandwich than a bullied child. The Bulling Jr. experiment is an experience using hidden cameras inside of a Burger King restaurant where a high school junior is bullied and then a Whopper Jr. is bullied and served to restaurant guests. We then turned the reactions and interviews into an online film to help raise awareness about bullying worldwide.

To execute the Bullying Jr. experiment, we placed hidden cameras throughout a Burger King restaurant and set the stage for our customers to experience bullying first hard. First, a high school junior was bullied by friends (all actors); and then a Whopper Jr. was bullied - punched, smashed, destroyed, and served to restaurant guests by a staffer (also an actor). Our cameras captured guests' reactions in real-time while the high school junior was bullied right in front of customer's faces. The cameras also captured guests' reactions when they received their bullied burger. After the experiment, we interviewed real people and students to see how the Bullying Jr. experiment affected them. We then created a short, online film to show the rest of the world the results. The outcome was shocking, and unfortunately, not so shocking at the same time.

While 95% of real-life customers reported their bullied burger, only 12% reported the high school junior being bullied right in their faces. The Bullying Jr. experiment generated more interactions than any other Burger King video published in 2017, making up 41% of the brand's total views on YouTube for the year. Burger King's YouTube channel saw a subscription growth of 18%. Within days the Bullying Jr. experiment was shared over 500k times, earning over 3 billion impressions, more than 100 million ORGANIC views and $45 million in earned media. The visits to our partner organization NoBully.org more than tripled and the Bullying Jr. experiment is now used to teach students how to take a stand against bullying in classrooms around the world. Burger King also received over 100 handwritten thank you letters from students around the US.

Burger King's "Be Your Way" brand positioning encourages people to behave without any constrains or added social pressure. Bullying is the opposite of that. When we learned that 30% of students worldwide are bullied each year, we decided to partner with NoBully.org to create a live, in-store experience using hidden cameras inside of a Burger King restaurant. The Bullying Jr. experiment takes a stand against bullying by proving more people will stand up for a bullied sandwich than a bullied child.

Burger King is known for welcoming everyone into their restaurants, guests from all walks of life, ages and personalities too. This is reflected through the brand's positioning "Be your Way", an encouragement to behave without any constrains or added social pressure; a call for people to be their authentic selves while enjoying a meal inside of a restaurant. However, this was not the case for our social experiment. We set out a situation that displayed an act of bullying to a teenage actor. The experiment showed how bullying prevents a person from behaving like their true selves, not to mention an act of disrespect. By showcasing the experiment in our restaurant and across multiple channels, we started a conversation that not only landed our core brand positioning of "Be your Way", but also made strides by teaching children worldwide about the importance of standing up against bullying.

Young people who are perceived as different from their peers are often at risk for being bullied. This goes against Burger King, a brand that is known for accepting one's differences in a positive way. One of the biggest problems with bullying is that people don't stand up against it. When we learned that 30% of students worldwide are bullied each year, we partnered with NoBully.org to create a live, in-store experience that would help raise awareness and teach people how to take a stand against bullying. Our goal was to see if more people would stand up for their food being bullied or a child being bullied right in front of them.