Jul 13, 2017 | By Tess
Global food chain Burger King recently teamed up with ad agency David to step outside of its fast food comfort zone. Through its recent Stacker Day “All Hands on Flavor” campaign, Burger King helped lend a hand by providing 3D printed mechanical hands to people across Argentina.
Of course, Burger King itself doesn’t have the chops to be 3D printing prosthetics, so it partnered with Atomic Lab, a 3D printed prosthetics producer founded by 21-year-old Gino Tubaro, which over the past three years has supplied roughly 500 3D printed hand and arm prosthetics to people in need—for free.
On July 5, Burger King held its annual Stacker Day event, which offers the five-patty sandwich combos for half price. This year, it decided that it would try to give back a bit (all while promoting its products, of course) by donating half of all Stacker sales on the day to Atomic Lab. With the numbers in, the Argentinian charity organization says it now has enough funding to 3D print and assemble a thousand more mechanical hand prosthetics.
David, which has been working with Burger King for some time now, has helped the fast food chain not only stay current but has tied it to certain social causes that are relevant today. In 2015, for instance, Burger King and David came out with the “Proud Whopper” campaign which aimed to raise awareness about LGBT rights.
“Most of David’s work for BK has always tried to tackle an issue that is relevant in some way,” Ignacio Ferioli, the agency’s co-creative chief told AdWeek. “Stacker Day is a big event in Argentina. People queue for hours to get a burger. Sales keep growing year after year. We wondered if we could do something relevant that tied back to a huge burger that’s hard to handle. Donating money to Atomic Lab, a company that builds prosthetic hands, and gives them for free, sounded like a good idea.”
Atomic Lab founder Gino Tubaro
To promote its Stacker Day deal, Burger King also released a number of ads which showed the types of people it would be helping with 3D printed hands. Importantly, the company says it was careful not to make its campaign too sad, as most people with hand-related disabilities can still lead normal, full lives.
David’s co-creative chief Joaquín Cubría, explained: “BK is not playing the hero role, it’s just helping. The people in the film live normal lives—and always find a way to do what they want. They’ll accept our help, but can perfectly live without it. So, no depressing piano chords on the soundtrack, or sad stories becoming happy endings thanks to a burger. Like in most of these types of projects, we were ready to roll with whatever came up.”
Atomic Lab, which we recently wrote about, was recognized by U.S. President Barack Obama on an official trip to Argentina last year. Led by Tubaro, the organization will be able to provide many more people with 3D printed hands thanks to Burger King’s promotion. We imagine the fast food chain will be happy to see people of all abilities able to eat its massive five-patty Stacker burger.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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