Burger King Cooks Up Nightmares with New Sandwich

Like jack-o-lanterns, Reese’s cups and Michael Myers, Burger King is quickly becoming a staple of Halloween. Last year, the burger brand unleashed its Scary Clown Night campaign—which simultaneously creeped out customers (in a good way) and clowned on McDonald’s. This year, BK is back at it again unveiling the Nightmare King, a sandwich so insane it is scientifically proven to give you nightmares.

Along with cooking up a crazy-looking fast-food concoction (the Nightmare King features a burger, chicken and bacon trapped inside a green bun), Burger King also produced a video detailing the scientific study of the nightmare-yielding sandwich. In the video, we see participants in the eerie experiment get electrodes placed on their heads before consuming the sandwich and heading off to sleep.

We then see brain activity and heart rates jumping on monitors, as the sandwich eaters toss, turn, and twitch their eyelids. They later recount the terrors they encountered in their restless slumbers—which include a burger turning into a snake and an alien attacking a boat. The study ends with the (scientific?) conclusion that your chances of having nightmares increase by 3.5 times after you chomp down the Nightmare King.

The secret ingredient to BK’s Halloween marketing success? While the ideas at the core of their content are humorous and lighthearted, the execution takes itself dead serious—inducing legitimate (if ridiculous) creeps and chills.