Ever wondered what it would be like to eat the poop emoji?

Wonder no more.

In a contender for the best marketing campaign of 2022 (so far), Burger King dropped a new flavor of ice cream — poop emoji, complete with cute little eyes and a smile.

The tongue-in-cheek advert shows what one can only hope isn’t poop-flavored ice cream (we’ll assume it’s chocolate) being served in the typical swirling motion before the emoji eyes and mouth appear, and the pun becomes clear.

But ‘Poop Emoji Ice Cream’ is more than just a joke: it’s all in service of marketing the ‘clean’ ingredients that are now used in the product. It may also inadvertently be telling customers the ice cream they previously enjoyed was full of shit. As the advert notes, “an ice cream that looks like shit, to remind people that it’s free from artificial shit.” The ice cream is only available this season via a special ice cream truck, with the company still deciding whether to make it a permanent menu item.

The launch comes after the company announced back in September 2021 that it was banning over 120 artificial ingredients from its food menus, as it continued to push its “commitment to deliver real food to their customers.” The campaign presented a moldy Whopper as evidence that their fast food does actually degrade as it ages, you know, as food should. If Burger King’s website is to be believed, the company is well on its way to achieving this target. 90% of the permanent food menu in the US is already free of colors, flavors and preservatives that come from unnatural sources. Burger King hopes to make this 100% soon, and perhaps this new scoop of poop will edge them closer.

Burger King isn’t the only fast-food brand to focus on making their food offerings “healthier,” if anything, it’s late to the additive-free party. In 2015, Panera Bread and Papa John’s kickstarted the trend, with Panera developing an extensive ‘no no list’ of additives and Papa John’s removing artificial ingredients entirely. Since then, most of the other fast-food brands have joined, perhaps accepting that if you can’t beat them, you join them. But, in truth, these brands have little choice: the customer is looking for healthier options when it comes to fast food — even if that concept is slightly backward.

And in that category, Burger King has been lagging, and it’s suffering as a result, with the brand losing second place in the US market to Wendy’s, and its sales falling 5.4% in the past year. Burger King’s biggest problem is it doesn’t appear to know how to cater to the 39% of Americans who are looking for healthy options at fast-food restaurants. Aside from its recent Impossible Burger, which failed to increase the chain’s same-store sales growth, the brand has done little to entice customers seeking something that doesn’t include double their entire day’s fat intake in one meal. It’s also struggling to shake off the perception that it does burgers and little else.

While the ice cream is a clever marketing gimmick, it could be the start of Burger King finally pushing into the ‘clean’ concept with purpose. Expect to see the brand experiment further if it’s received well, especially with plant-based and vegan options. Because if it doesn’t figure out how to win over health-conscious customers, it’s unlikely it will ever regain its crown.

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