Old, unrelated advert shared as Burger King mocking McDonald's over Trump visit

Context

After U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump visited a McDonald's in Pennsylvania, users on X (previously Twitter) and Facebook shared an image of a Burger King poster.

They claimed it shows the fast food chain mocking McDonald's over the visit. The poster reads, "Work for a king, not a clown," and directs viewers to the Burger King U.K. careers website (examples archived here and here). 

The claim appears to stem from an article by The London Economic (archived here), which shared the link on Facebook and Threads with the caption, "Burger King, take a bow" (examples archived here and here). 

However, Logically Facts found the poster dates back to a Burger King recruiting campaign from 2021 and is unrelated to Trump's recent visit.

In fact

According to The London Economic article, Burger King's trolling campaign against McDonald's commenced after the Trump visit to promote "a recruitment drive." The piece stated the poster was displayed in some Burger King outlets in the U.K. 

However, a reverse image search of the poster led us to multiple results dating back to 2021. For example, this Reddit post shared the same advert with the caption, "Burger King taking digs at Maccys UK." The poster text, background, and lighting on the image match the viral post.

         The screenshot on the left displays the viral image, and the screenshot on the right, with a matching poster, was captured from a 2021 Reddit post. (Source: Threads/Reddit/Modified by Logically Facts)

Multiple social media posts dating back to 2021, predating Trump's recent McDonald's visit, also shared the poster. None of the posts make any reference to Donald Trump. 

Burger King has a long history of mocking its rival, McDonald's, in advertisement campaigns.

However, besides the article in The London Economic, no credible news outlet has recently published the story, nor does the poster appear as a recent campaign on Burger King U.K.'s social media accounts.  

Logically Facts contacted Burger King U.K. but has not yet received a response.

The verdict

Burger King did not launch a mocking campaign against McDonald's in response to Donald Trump's visit to a McDonald's restaurant. The poster dates back to 2021 and is unrelated. Therefore, we marked the claim as misleading. 

Follow Logically Facts' coverage and fact-checking of the U.S. Election 2024 here.