Where's Herb?

Where's Herb?

A picture of Herb taken from a commercial
Agency	J. Walter Thompson
Client	Burger King
Product	Whopper
Release date(s)	1985–1986
Starring	Jon Menick

Where's Herb? was an advertising campaign for the fast food chain Burger King in 1985 and 1986. The television commercials featured a fictional character named Herb, who was described as never having eaten a Burger King burger in his life. They called on fans to visit their local Burger King in the hope of finding Herb and winning a prize. The campaign also included an "I'm not Herb" promotion, in which customers could get a discounted Whopper by including the phrase in their order. This confused people who tried to follow the promotion because they did not know what Herb looked like. By the time his appearance was revealed, many people had already lost interest in the campaign. The promotion was poorly received and was the last campaign that the J. Walter Thompson firm was hired to design for Burger King.

When the commercials were created, Burger King was suffering due to their marketing efforts. The promotion was designed to counter the marketing efforts of McDonald's, which was spending an estimated US$80 to 100 million to promote the McDLT (McDonald's Lettuce and Tomato), and Wendy's, which had found success with its "Where's the beef?" commercials. The Herb commercials, launched in November 1985, were created by the J. Walter Thompson advertising firm at an expense of approximately US$40 million. Donald Dempsey, J. Walter Thompson's Executive Vice President of Marketing, oversaw the creation of the campaign, and it continued under the direction of Tom Sawyer, the company's Vice President of Marketing. Before settling on the name Herb, the firm considered such names as Mitch and Oscar.

The campaign began with three weeks of "cryptic" messages designed to create interest in the promotion. Herb was mentioned in newspaper advertisements, on banners at football games, and in flyers distributed to the public. On November 24, 1985, the first commercials were aired on CBS, NBC, and ABC. The premise of the commercials was that Herb was the only person in the United States who had not eaten a burger from Burger King. The advertising agency created a fictional biography for the character, claiming that he was raised in Wisconsin, had worked in a cheese factory, and had also sold decoy ducks. The character is commonly referred to as "Herb the Nerd".