Burger King

Advertiser: Burger King Corp. Agency: Ammirati Puris Lintas, New York Challenge: Introduce the new Burger King French fries. The Ad: The children's toy Mr. Potato Head assumes the role of pitchman in ads promoting the much hyped fries. In the TV commercial, the stop-motion spokesvegetable holds a press conference to announce that the Burger King fries beat McDonald's fries in a taste test. Then he realistically rushes from the podium without answering questions. Comment: Using Hasbro Inc.'s Mr.

An Atlanta-based alliance of minority leaders has launched a boycott campaign against Miami-based fast-food chain Burger King, alleging discrimination against African Americans and Latinos. "Burger King spends a lot more on improvements in affluent middle-class communities than in minority communities. The playing field is not level," a boycott spokesman said.

The Minneapolis-based company said that because of adverse market conditions, it has withdrawn its proposed offering of limited partnership interests in a second master limited partnership of Burger King restaurant properties. On March 26, Pillsbury had announced the proposed sale of 108 to 120 restaurant properties, with an anticipated closing before May 31. The sale had been expected to generate an after-tax gain in the range of $20 million to $23 million.

Burger King Corp. President Jay O. Darling has resigned after 19 months in the job and has expressed an interest in becoming a franchise holder in the fast-food chain, the company announced. J. Jeffrey Campbell, Burger King chairman and chief executive, will assume direct control of Burger King in addition to his current duties.

Burger King Corp. was charged in a lawsuit with acting negligently when it distributed millions of potentially hazardous Pokemon balls to children. The suit, filed in Dallas County Court in Texas, came three days after the hamburger chain recalled the popular toy, which had been included in its Kids Meals for about two months, after reports that an 18-month-old girl suffocated on one of the toys.

Pillsbury Co., which is fending off a hostile $5.23-billion takeover bid from a large British conglomerate, announced today that it will spin off its troubled Burger King subsidiary. Under a plan approved by Pillsbury's board of directors, the fast-food chain would be spun off to its shareholders as a separate public company, distributing one share of Burger King common stock for each outstanding share of Pillsbury common stock, payable on Jan. 27 or earlier for shareholders of record Dec. 2.

Ah, sweet ambience. Soft lights. Music. Table service. And while Chardonnay isn't on the menu yet, Burger King is dressing for dinner. The Miami-based fast-food giant said Thursday that it will introduce table service at dinner and an expanded evening menu at its more than 5,700 restaurants across the country over the next couple of weeks. It is a move that will make Burger King the first national fast-food restaurant to do so.

Burger King Corp. and an executive who has experience running inner-city restaurants agreed to open at least 125 such restaurants in the next five years. The fast-food chain and La-Van Hawkins plan to open 25 restaurants in the next 18 months in Washington, Chicago and Detroit. The first will open in the U.S. capital across from Howard University. Hawkins, the founder of Urban City Foods, was responsible for Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc.'

The cheeseburger tasted a little funny, a little tough. "They took a bite outta my ear," Tommy Geas was saying to another customer. "But we're goin' 15 blanking rounds." Had I been served a Tyson special by accident? An examination revealed a hunk of bacon I hadn't ordered. At least I think it was bacon. My guess is that Tommy Geas, proprietor of the imperiled Bud's Red Hots, threw it in, gratis, because he likes me, he really likes me.

Coca-Cola Co. has agreed to pay hamburger chain Burger King Corp. and its operators more than $20 million to settle a dispute over a rigged marketing test for Frozen Coke, according to a Burger King document. Atlanta-based Coke, the world's largest soft drink maker, admitted in June that some of its employees manipulated the results of a test of the frozen soft drink in 2000 to win Burger King's business.