The Burger King Bacon Double Cheeseburger
When Burger King opened its doors as Insta-Burger King back in 1953, Cheeseburgers were already on the menu. And why shouldn’t they be? They take a great thing and make it better by adding cheese. It is an easily repeatable formula for success with all food.
It would take a few decades before someone at Burger King finally realized that you could make that cheeseburger even better by adding an ingredient that is just as magical as cheese, bacon.
In 1982, Burger King release the Bacon Double Cheeseburger and they they released a few commercials that year to sell what would become a very popular and influential menu item.
This first one takes a page from Doublemint Gum and decides to riff on the whole double aspect of this tasty burger while featuring various sets of twins. The slogan, “better get it on the double” was clever, but it never caught on. Also the bun in this glamour shot of the burger looks really dry, although pleasantly awash in sesame seeds.
This next commercial’s theme is “growing up with the cheeseburger.” In it, an affable, but slightly nerdy fellow, ages before our eyes. all the while eating an ever evolving burger line that begins in B&W with the humble hamburger and culminates with him all grown up eating a bacon double cheeseburger with a kid of his own.
It makes you wonder what happened to this kid. What type of burger is he now enjoying with his own children? Triple Cheeseburger? Impossible Quadruple Bacon Cheeseburger?
A few years after its premier, Burger King would still be advertising their cheesy bacony wonder. In this commercial from 1986, they would deliver an Mtv-like series of shots of various classic car at a drive-thru that is serving up Bacon Double Cheeseburgers. The use of Aretha Franklin’s Freeway of Love makes this a pretty perfect mid-eighties artifact.
Burger King would continue to serve up this combination. They would even attempt variations like a mega-sized version, triple-decker bacon cheeseburgers, and a limited edition bacon and cheddar cheeseburger. Those would come and go. In the end, the version that they created in 1982 would endure and nearly 40 years later it is still available.
Its a classic combination. So why not head to your local BK with your twin sibling and partake in this timeless culinary delight? Or should I say, “get it on the double.”