With the premiere of Stranger Things Season 3 just a few weeks away, Netflix and Burger King are teaming up for a fast food stunt that seems aimed at the die-hard fans, only: At 11 locations across the country, the chain is adding an “Upside Down Whopper” to the menu, which is literally just a Whopper served upside down. No special Demagorgon sauce, Eggo bun, or Hopper’s bacon crumbles. It’s just an inverted hamburger in Stranger Things-branded packaging.
The Upside Down Whopper will only be available at locations of the chain in Miami, Houston, SF, LA, NYC, Atlanta, Philly, Boston, Chicago, and Dallas starting June 21. These Burger Kings will also peddle Stranger Things-branded T-shirts, pins, crowns, and ketchup packets. The chain is also running a promotion with Coke where customers across the country can scan a barcode on the side of their sodas using the Burger King app (who even knew such a thing existed?) to win free merch and food as well as “cash, airline tickets, a car, and even a Stranger Things VIP Experience.” And to round out this brand synergy hootenanny, DoorDash is offering a special “Hopper Meal” deal for the next week, where users can get a Whopper, fries, and small soda delivered to them for $5 and receive “access to exclusive Stranger Things content from Season 3” by using the promo code “Stranger.”
Usually these type of branded fast food deals are reserved for blockbuster movies and Disney franchises, not TV shows. But Stranger Things is a special case: According to the New York Times, Netflix has struck up deals with 75 brands to help promote the new season of its wildly popular supernatural thriller. Baskin-Robbins will be serving new flavors inspired by the Scoops Ahoy ice cream parlor in Season 3, and H&M is now selling a full line of retro Stranger Things-branded summer apparel. In addition to the Burger King app giveaway, Coca-Cola also brought back one of its biggest failures — New Coke — for a limited run timed with the return of the show. The extra-sweet soda appears throughout Season 3, and Coca-Cola is making 500,000 cans available for purchase on its website and in select vending machine across the country.
Netflix says that there’s no money changing hands for the Coke product placement in the series, although the entertainment giant will get cuts from merchandise sales of some of these branded products. The creators of the show, twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, tell the Times that they have no problem working with these brands, because the movies that inspired them as kids also involved similar partnerships. “When we were kids, we were obsessed with those self-lacing Nikes in Back to the Future Part II, and, of course, we loved that Elliott baited E.T. with Reese’s Pieces!” the brothers explain. “When we were kids, that simply made Elliott more relatable, more ordinary, more like us.” Much of Season 3 takes place in a shopping mall, so fans can expect to see plenty of cameos from brands past and present, including the Gap, WaldenBooks, and, of course, Burger King.
All 10 episodes of Stranger Things Season 3 will land on Netflix July 4.
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