Tom Curtis

Ultimately, you know, we did a lot of consumer testing and this listening line really brought it home for us.

Just sharing all of that feedback with our franchisees gave them the conviction that it was a great move that we should make.

And that's what we did.

Well, no, because pricing is managed by the franchisees.

It does add about $4,000 in cost to the annual operations and to food costs in an average Burger King.

And our franchisees locked arms with us and agreed.

That, listen, we know that the benefits that we'll get by people falling in love with the Whopper again and that people that will come back and try it again for the first time in many, many years or in many years or for the first time will far outweigh that cost.

And so far, that is proving to be wildly true.

I didn't think it would involve going viral.

I was coached by my PR team a couple of months ago.

Tom, you're a super-duper micro-micro-influencer.

I don't know exactly what qualifies you as such a thing.

It's just such a tricky game.

You don't know if you're going to come off as genuine.

And I think even when this thing went viral, I always was concerned.

I hope America doesn't wake up one day and go,

Hey, you know, we don't like messy eaters or whatever because this thing can go north or south on you and you just never know.

I will say that having had this happen the last month or so, I have been more open and more eager to meet with folks like you and tell our story.

Because I think the story is good, and I think it's genuine, and I think it's wholesome, and I think we're doing the right things, and we're doing them for the right reasons.

So I certainly feel more confident that these venues are a great place to tell the story of a brand.