The Biggest Flops In Burger King History

Burger King is known as "home of the Whopper," and there's no denying the fast-food chain's signature hamburger has been a longtime favorite with consumers. Yet despite the millions of Whoppers sold each year to hungry customers, not every item introduced by Burger King has proven to be a hit; some, in fact, have been spectacular failures, unleashed onto an unwitting public who took a bite and said, "Nope."

Of course, Burger King can't be blamed for wanting to increase its market share, given that McDonald's remains the true king of burgers. In fact, as of 2019, McDonald's brand was valued at more than $130 billion, while Burger King came in at a far less $7.1 billion.

Burger King isn't the first, last, or only fast-food outlet to introduce experimental dishes that nobody wanted, but they've had some pretty epic fails over the years. From a breakfast sandwich that contained enough calories to feed an entire family to an ill-conceived Halloween-themed burger that gave diners a shocking surprise, these are the biggest flops in Burger King history.

While Taco Bell was enjoying success with its Mexican-inspired fast-food fare, Burger King viewed another piece of market share it could snag from a competitor. In putting on their corporate thinking caps, an idea emerged: the Whopperito. Launched in 2016, the Whopperito contained all the stuff crammed into a traditional Whopper (beef, onions, tomatoes, lettuce and pickles), but instead of a bun the whole thing was wrapped up in a tortilla. The other big change was that the condiments (usually ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise) were substituted with cheesy queso sauce.

Was it a good idea? Not according to Newsweek, which viciously lambasted the Whopperito as being "as disgusting as it looks." At the time, however, Burger King North America president Alex Macedo thought they were really onto something. "We know Tex-Mex is growing a lot... and there are not that many national chains that sell burritos," Macedo told Business Insider. "For us, a burrito works well because we get a vast majority of our sales through the drive-thru, and this is something that's portable."

Trying to please fans of both burritos and burgers resulted in an oddball product that was neither, and Burger King ultimately bid the Whopperito adios.

Around the same time as the table service/dinner baskets debacle, Burger King introduced its Flame-Broiled Meatloaf Sandwich. Consumers first learned about the new sandwich from a series of TV commercials featuring such celebs as former MLB player/Mr. Belvedere star Bob Uecker and MTV personality Dan Cortese, best remembered for wearing a baseball cap turned backward while yelling directly into the camera. "Wendy's doesn't have it, McDonald's doesn't have it," declared Cortese in one spot extolling the virtues of flame-broiled meatloaf.

Uecker was also featured in a commercial hawking the Flame-Broiled Meatloaf Dinner Basket, which managed to combine two of Burger King's fast-food failures into one big, fat mega-bust. Go figure, but consumers apparently weren't looking for a new menu item that may have made them feel like they were eating a sandwich made from leftovers. 

The Burger King Flame-Broiled Meatloaf sandwich ultimately suffered the same fate as the table service and the dinner baskets. Burger King eventually moved on from pitchmen Uecker and Cortese, as well as the chain's weird MTV-inspired "BK Tee Vee" branding meant to scream, "Hey kids, meatloaf is rad!"  

Imagine being a fly on the wall in the Burger King meeting where they came up with the idea of ripping off McDonald's iconic Happy Meals, but relating them to different emotions while also folding the whole thing into an ad campaign to raise awareness for mental health. 

Real Meals, reported Independent, were introduced in 2019 to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Month, with each boxed-up Burger King combo representing a different mood. Feeling salty? DGAF (don't give a f***)? Burger King had the meal to match the mood. 

The commercials were brutal. A depressed dude in a sad little room sits on his tiny single bed and declares, "Not everybody wakes up happy. Sometimes you feel sad, scared, crappy..."

A gold star for anyone who guessed that Real Meals were eviscerated on social media, and the sarcasm was intense. One tweeter congratulated Burger King for "ending mental illness the same way Kendall Jenner and Pepsi ended racism," referencing another disastrous ad campaign. Another wrote, "Just punched a hole in my wall thinking about all the money I could have saved last year by just having Burger King instead of having to go to the psychiatric hospital."

By the mid-2000s, breakfast was a fast-food battleground. McDonald's had a solid foothold in the category with its iconic Egg McMuffins when Burger King came up with a breakfast sandwich that would hopefully dethrone the McMuffin. This product was the Enormous Omelet Sandwich, which boasted a two-egg omelet topped with two slices of American cheese, a sausage patty and three thick strips of bacon, piled high on a hoagie-style bun. 

Those who dug into the sandwich's nutritional information came away with some fun facts, reported NBC News. With more calories that the Whopper (730 calories vs. the Whopper's puny 700), the Enormous Omelet Sandwich contained a whopping 47 grams of fat. "By expanding our indulgent breakfast sandwich menu, Burger King restaurants now offer even more alternatives for our guests who want a convenient and filling breakfast," said Russ Klein, Burger King's chief global marketing officer, at the time.

Fast food consumers clearly love a hearty breakfast, but apparently drew the line at a sandwich that should have been sold with a defibrillator on the side. The BK Enormous Omelet was discontinued and never heard from again.

As Delish recalled, in the 1980s Burger King had apparently grown envious of the success that White Castle had been experiencing with its little mini-sized burgers, and saw an opportunity to grab a piece of the tiny-burger market share. The result was Burger Bundles, basically a Burger King take on sliders. According to the Christian Science Monitor, they were sold in a "bundled" packs of six, hence the name.

When it came to broiling the small burgers, there was a big problem. As Nation's Restaurant News, reported, the patties were so small they reportedly had a tendency to slip through the broiler grates and were constantly getting ruined. The teeny little burgers were later discontinued, leaving White Castle as the true king when it came to undersized burgers.

While Burger King Bundles may have been lost to the sands of time (with the exception of a few attempts at re-release), a vintage commercial remains, indicating "these tasty little guys" were the perfect grab-and-go snack for eating on the run.

Hot dogs and hamburgers have gone hand-in-hand at backyard barbecues for decades, so why wouldn't that also be the case at Burger King? The fast-food chain decided to find out in 2016 by launching Grilled Dogs, introducing the hot dogs to its permanent menu. According to Newsweek, the dogs were available in a standard variety as well as a chili cheese version. "The introduction of Grilled Dogs just made sense to our guests and for our brand," said Burger King North America president North Alex Macedo in a statement. 

Burger King was apparently quite bullish on its dogs. In fact, the chain hired rapper Snoop Dogg and "coochie-coochie" queen Charo to star in humorous ads meant to look like training videos to instruct staff in the proper preparation of the dogs. As Time reported, the "Gin & Juice" rapper was billed as a "Grilled Dogs Training Ambassador," who instructs trainees to put some pretty strange toppings on the wieners. "Break out the burners 'cause we grillin' this dog my way — bikinis, martinis, zucchinis, yeah, you know the rest," he raps to trainees.

People like burgers. People like pizza. Given that knowledge, one would assume combining the two would be a home run. That was clearly the thinking that resulted in the New York Pizza Burger. As Salon reported, the new product was launched as a special offering at the chain's locations in New York. 

In truth, the item was more burger than pizza — essentially a giant hamburger with pizza-style toppings including pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, pesto, and marinara sauce crammed into a nine-and-a-half-inch sesame seed bun. This super-sized burger was then cut into sections and shared like a pizza, designed to feed six. 

The New York Pizza Burger was the creation of Burger King head chef J Sullivan, who described the monstrous meal as a "fast food translation of the locavore movement," which aims to connect food producers and food consumers in the same geographic locale. However, as The Telegraph pointed out, Burger King's New York Pizza Burger was not for the weak of heart — literally, given that it clocked in at an artery-clogging 2,500 calories.