<P> Like its menu, the equipment the company cooks its hamburgers with has also evolved as the company expanded . The burgers have always been broiled mechanically; the original unit, called an Insta - Broiler, was one of two pieces of equipment the founders of Insta - Burger King purchased before opening their new restaurant . The Insta - Broiler worked by cooking 12 burger patties in a wire basket, allowing the patties to be cooked from both sides simultaneously . When McLamore and Edgerton took over the company, besides dropping the "Insta -" prefix, they switched to an improved unit which they called a "Flame Broiler". Designed by the two and featuring stationary burners that cooked the meat on a moving chain, the unit broke down less often while maintaining a similar cooking rate . The company would stay with that format for the next 40 years until Burger King began developing a variable speed broiler that could handle multiple items with different cooking rates and times . These new units began testing in 1999 and eventually evolved into the two models the company deployed system - wide in 2008--2009 . Accompanying these new broilers was new food - holding equipment, accompanied with a computer - based product monitoring system for its cooked products . The monitoring system allows for more concise tracking of product quality while giving the company and its franchisees a method to streamline costs by more precisely projecting sales and product usage . </P> <P> Since its foundation in 1954, Burger King has employed varied advertising programs, both successful and unsuccessful . During the 1970s, output included its "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce ..." jingle, the inspiration for its current mascot the Burger King, and several well known and parodied slogans such as "Have it your way" and "It takes two hands to handle a Whopper". Burger King introduced the first attack ad in the fast food industry with a pre-teen Sarah Michelle Gellar in 1981 . The television spot, which claimed BK burgers were larger and better tasting than competitor McDonald's, so enraged executives at McDonald's parent company that they sued all parties involved . Starting in the early 1980s and running through approximately 2001, BK engaged a series of ad agencies that produced many unsuccessful slogans and programs, including its biggest advertising flop "Where's Herb?" </P> <P> Burger King was a pioneer in the advertising practice known as the "product tie - in", with a successful partnership with George Lucas' Lucasfilm, Ltd., to promote the 1977 film Star Wars in which BK sold a set of glasses featuring the main characters from the movie . This promotion was one of the first in the fast food industry and set the pattern that continues to the present . BK's early success in the field was overshadowed by a 1982 deal between McDonald's and the Walt Disney Company to promote Disney's animated films beginning in the mid-1980s and running through the early 1990s . In 1994, Disney switched from McDonald's to Burger King, signing a 10 - movie promotional contract which would include such top 10 films as Aladdin (1992), Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Lion King (1994), and Toy Story (1995). A partnership in association with the Pokémon franchise at the height of its popularity in 1999 was tremendously successful for the company, with many locations rapidly selling out of the toys and the replacements . </P> <P> Shortly after the acquisition of Burger King by TPG Capital, L.P. in 2002, its new CEO Brad Blum set about turning around the fortunes of the company by initiating an overhaul of its flailing advertising programs . One of the first moves by the company was to reinstate its famous "Have it your way" slogan as the corporate motto . BK handed the effort off to its new advertising agency, Miami - based Crispin Porter + Bogusky (abbreviated as CP + B). CP + B was known for having a hip, subversive tack when creating campaigns for its clients, exactly what BK was looking for . One of CP + B strategies was to revive the Burger King character used during BK's 1970s / 1980s Burger King Kingdom children's advertising campaign as a caricatured variation, now simply called "the King". The farcical nature of "the Burger King" centered advertisements inspired an internet meme where the King is edited into unusual situations that are either comical or menacing, many times followed with the phrase "Where is your God now?" </P>

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