The tongue-in-cheek spot celebrated the burger's appeal to hungry men, showing them marching down the street with placards reading "I am man" and singing a parody of the Helen Reddy song 'I am Woman'. It was created by US agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky and broke in November.
It drew 12 complaints, including one from lobby Sustain, that it associated consumption of large amounts of meat with masculinity and five complaints that it encouraged excessive consumption of unhealthy food.
The Advertising Standards Authority did not uphold these and instead upheld three complaints that the burger in the ad appeared larger than the product sold in Burger King outlets. It verified this by purchasing Double Whoppers from two Burger Kings in London.
It ordered Burger King not to show the ad again until the misleading impression of the size of the burger had been corrected.
The ASA was told by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre that it routinely warned advertisers that any visual representations of foodstuffs in TV ads should be in line with standard production and not exaggerated. The BACC said it was assured by Crispin Porter that the product had not been exaggerated during filming.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .