Dive Brief:

• Burger King and Budweiser are resurrecting the beer marketer's iconic "Whassup" campaign to promote the launch of a collaborative, limited-edition American Brewhouse King Sandwich, a news release announced.
• The two brands teased the return of "Whassup" earlier this week on Twitter by recreating dialogue from the ad in an exchange between their official accounts. Burger King also remade Budweiser's iconic "Whassup" commercial, with footage from the original spot and a cameo from its mascot, The King, at the end. 
• Burger King is additionally releasing a limited-edition "Freedom Crown" that can hold the new American Brewhouse King Sandwich on one side and a can of beer on the other, with a straw so the wearer can drink beer while wearing the crown, Ad Age reported. 

.@budweiserusa ☎️ brring brring brring brring

— Burger King (@BurgerKing) June 26, 2018

Dive Insight:

Burger King and Budweiser are leaning heavily into consumers' nostalgia for campaigns past to drum up interest ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, which is frequently celebrated with burgers and beer. "Whassup," which debuted in 1999, has become a frequently cited case study for success in the ad industry, widely popularizing a brand catchphrase in a world before social media and things "going viral."

Burger King essentially taking Budweiser's existing creative and inserting its own brand into the narrative via The King's cameo fits into the marketer's broader strategy of "hacking" pop culture moments, as company officials detailed at Cannes Lions last week. 

The remake of "Whassup" might resonate with millennials, who tend to appreciate nostalgia focused on the '90s and are now of actual legal drinking age. AB InBev, Budweiser's parent company, has also seen success replicating the core conceit of "Whassup" for more social media-minded consumers. The marketer has popularized the nonsensical phrase "dilly dilly" to market its Bud Light brand, including for its Super Bowl campaign this year.  

Burger King and Budweiser's efforts to draw interest to their collaboration points to how brands, particularly those in the fast-food category, leverage platforms like Twitter to establish more real-time, casual conversations that can generate buzz. At press time, the initial Twitter post by Burger King had nearly 30,000 people talking about it. Last year, fellow burger maker Wendy's and the chain Wingstop became embroiled in a playful Twitter "rap battle" that played off the Migos' single "Bad and Boujee." The stunt gave Wingstop 9 million impressions and netted over 72,000 retweets for the brand.