Burger King may yet be able to forge a collaboration in aid of this month’s Peace Day, after four fast food chains stepped in to fill the void left by McDonald’s rejection.
The Miami-headquartered company published a second open letter to Denny’s, Wayback Burgers, Krystal and Giraffas – who all offered to lend their support when McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook dismissed the plan as meaningless – saying that “peace is all-inclusive and open to all”.
“An incredible thing has happened,” Burger King wrote. “We’ve received a significant number of unexpected responses from other restaurants, large and small, each expressing an appetite for peace and enthusiasm to help spread the Peace One Day message.”
The proposal is now that the five companies will unite on 21 September to sell a burger that combines the key ingredients of each of their signature sandwiches – and Burger King has reiterated that McDonald’s are still welcome to get on board. In the letter, it’s unclear whether the event would still take place in Atlanta, as was initially suggested; Georgia’s state capital is roughly equidistant between the headquarters of Burger King and McDonald’s.
But FoodBev has calculated that the halfway point between the US head offices of all five companies involved in this latest collaboration is roughly Charleston, South Carolina.
Last week, we reported that McDonald’s had turned down Burger King’s original offer to get together and sell a McWhopper burger – a combination of Burger King’s Whopper and McDonald’s Big Mac – in aid of Peace Day. The one-off event would be a chance to settle the companies’ differences, it said. But McDonald’s CEO Easterbrook responded with a note on Wednesday challenging Burger King to “a meaningful global effort” and criticising it for likening their rivalry to war.
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