Have a huge awards win, lose the client. It’s an industry legend that’s hard to shake. It may be coming true again. Burger King parent, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), has put its creative and media accounts into review. US creative partner, David, (the agency behind Moldy Whopper in 2020), is one of the agencies in the firing line. Despite the engaging sparring with McDonald’s (especially Whopper Detour and McWhopper), some witty carpe diems and a lot of cleverness around flame-grilled, Burger King’s US sales have been declining. In April 2021, it lost its position as the second largest burger chain in America to Wendy’s.

Gut, which is the creative agency of record for both Popeyes and Tim Hortons, (which was founded in 2017 by two of David’s co-founders, Anselmo Ramos and Gastón Bigio, retains its position. It became AOR for Popeyes in March 2020 and for Tim Hortons in June 2021.

David has been Burger King’s global agency of record since 2014. Also up for review are the media accounts for Restaurant Brands’ three major brands, Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes.

The attempt to reinvigorate its brands comes after RBI lost four of its key market leaders in the last twelve months. Fernando Machado, who was chief marketing officer of Burger King and and global chief marketing officer of the parent company, left the company in April 2021 to become the global CMO of Activision Blizzard. Paloma Azulay took over Machado’s role as RBI global chief brand officer for just six months. Burger King’s first North American chief marketing officer, Ellie Doty, left in November 2021 after a year and a bit. In January this year, Popeyes chief marketing officer, Bruno Cardinali, stepped down.