January 09 2009
Murder Burger Billboard Culled
posted by Ana Samways at 12:00 pm
In an effort to illustrate that all Murder Burger’s meat and animal products — right down to the eggs in the mayo — are sourced from free range and ethically farmed animals, the restaurant, based in Ponsonby, Auckland, put up a couple of billboards (see above) stating that “free range tastes better”.
The billboard didn’t even last a day before billboard company iSite decided that it was “offensive” to remind people that animals do actually have to die in order for consumers to eat meat…
The Murderburger blog explains what happened here and the ad guys confirm the billboard artwork was all done in photoshop.
“When we tried shooting a chicken for real the choke of the shotgun was set wrong and Tony kept blowing away too much of the chicken. Also the blood didn’t spurt out right because we had to use a dead chicken propped up on a stick as the live ones kept running away…”
What do you think about the billboard? Direct or gratuitous?
January 9th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
If you don’t like the thought of animals dying…you probably shouldn’t be eating meat. Hypocrisy much?
January 9th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
It actually took me a while to make sense of the picture.
I would probably have gone for the two-seconds-earlier version. Happy, happy chicken, with a looming cleaver and frying pan ready to snatch. But that’s a personal thing.
Consider the advertising standards found Hell’s “Kids are evil. Feed them” billboard might damage kids’ self-esteem this would probably have fallen foul of them too. Heh. Fowl. But that doesn’t stop it running in the meantime. It’s just a matter of what people want to be associated with.
January 9th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
The ad is stupid.
Still if you’re offended by dead animals – don’t eat them.
January 9th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Well, we do actually have to kill them to eat them. On a side note I love the Murder Burger blog. The signal to noise ratio is pretty high – Low brow humour at its best.
January 10th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Controversial advertising tends to get alot of media attention don’t it.
As they say themselves on their site they got better coverage by them taking the billboard down than they would of got from leaving it up.
January 10th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I understand that I eat things that were alive, and that if they were not used for food, then they would have no life at all.
January 11th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
The ad isn’t half as clever as its creators imagine. Is their food better than their advertising?
January 12th, 2009 at 9:13 am
These guys get points for sass. People just hate things that challenge the status quo.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
You don’t have to kill them to eat them…
January 12th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
And besides, if we weren’t supposed to eat animals, how come they’re made out of meat?
January 21st, 2009 at 6:06 pm
creative saw the term red neck in the client brief and took it literally
February 13th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Murder Burger is the marketers dream that Hell thinks of itself as being, but is not.
Anybody see the Hell Pizza guy on that “family business” show? What a complete and utter douchebag. Hell’s ads have gotten progressively weaker, and their pizzas are comparable with pizza hut’s. But way more expensive.
On the other hand, I couldn’t help but laugh, repeatedly, while waiting for a burger from the Murder Burger outlet in Ponsonby. The menu got me about 6 times. The large posters (“Don’t worry freelance web designer”) had me chuckling like a loon.
The billboard doesn’t offend me, but I think considering what they’ve come up with in-store they could do much better than this. It feels like a Burger Fuel ad – thinks it’s much funnier than it is.
The Hell Pizza thing about kids being evil is just fucking lame. Don’t people have better things to do?
Who are these people?
BTW Murder Burger is pretty tasty. I think the super deluxe burgers are the way to go.