The second biggest burger chain in the world, Burger King and its cardboard crowns are the stuff of legend. Having started from scratch back in 1953, Burger King was already the world's third biggest fast food chain by the 1970s, and today has around 20,000 locations globally. But how did a low-key Florida burger joint go global? We look at the rise of Burger King, from one small restaurant to fast food royalty.

Burger King began as the project of Matthew Burns and his son-in-law Keith Cramer, who were keen to get in on the action of fast food franchising. In 1952, Burns invited Cramer to California to look at successful business operations (like McDonald’s, founded in the 1940s). Taking what they had learned back to Cramer’s hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, the pair founded their own restaurant, Insta-Burger King, in 1953.

From the beginning, Insta-Burger King's menu focused on chargrilled, rather than fried, burger patties, resulting in a smoky flavour. Things were a bit simpler in the early 1950s, though, with the menu consisting just of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, coffee and fruit pies – and nothing was priced higher than 18 cents. Around 70 years on, Burger King's flame-grilled patties remain its USP, even if the prices have changed a little.

Looking to franchise, Burns and Cramer were joined by partners David Edgerton and James McLamore, who opened the second Insta-Burger King branch in Miami in 1954. Armed with existing restaurant experience, Edgerton and McLamore would go down in history as the real entrepreneurs of the company. They sharpened the business model, introduced the Whopper in 1957, and went on to purchase the company from Burns and Cramer in 1959. McLamore is pictured in a Burger King joint in the early 1960s.

The original Insta-Burger King was so named because, in 1953, Burns and Cramer had purchased rights to the Insta-Broiler: a device that could chargrill burger patties very quickly without any loss of quality. However, the Insta-Broiler machines were prone to developing faults, easily jamming and slowing down service. Seeing the issue, McLamore created his own flame grill instead, and the ‘Insta’ was dropped from the brand name. 

The Burger King character was created in 1955, beginning life as part of the first restaurant’s sign. Early iterations of the Burger King logo showed the jovial King character seated on a burger throne, clutching a large drink — first on its own above the restaurant, and later (as pictured here) above the company’s new name.

Burger King’s most iconic menu item is the Whopper, which was first introduced in 1957 (more than 10 years before McDonald’s launched the Big Mac). Though it may get a seasonal update every now and then, the base design of the Whopper has remained unchanged since the 1950s: it consists of a 110g beef patty, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup and sliced onion, all sandwiched into a bun. It originally sold for just 37 cents.

In 1958, Burger King released its first-ever TV advert on a local Miami station, marking the start of a long history of influential commercials and expensive campaigns. During the early 1970s, the company used a cartoon version of its King character, voiced by Allen Swift, to appeal to children. These adverts made use of the slogan, 'Burger King, where kids are king!'.

Despite its federal trademark, Burger King encountered a local 'Burger King' with an existing state trademark when expanding into Illinois in 1961. The restaurants sued one another. It was ultimately ruled that the Illinois Burger King had the right to use its name within its original location, and that no Burger King chain restaurant could open within a 20-mile radius. Said Burger King is still there today, pictured in 2011, with the closest Burger King franchise 23 miles away.

In 1963, Burger King opened its first location outside the US, in Carolina, Puerto Rico. It was here that the Whopper Jr. was invented, completely by accident, when staff were forced to use small buns because the Whopper-sized ones hadn’t arrived yet. International expansion continued, with openings in Canada in 1969, Australia in 1971 and the first European restaurant, opened in Madrid in 1975. A store in the Spanish capital is pictured here.

Burger King has changed hands many times over the years. After its 1959 sale, it was purchased in 1967 by the Pillsbury Company, which itself was bought by British company Grand Metropolitan in 1989. Passing through more corporate hands into the early 2000s, Burger King ultimately merged with Canadian chain Tim Hortons in 2014. The two chains continue to operate separately, but leverage each other’s profits.

When looking to expand down under, Burger King came across further copyright complications: its name was already trademarked in Australia. Because of that, Burger King's Australian restaurants are instead named Hungry Jack’s, after its franchise founder Jack Cowin. Still proudly serving Whoppers, the first store opened in Perth in 1971. Today, Hungry Jack’s is the second-largest Burger King franchise in the world, with 400 Australian locations.

In 1974, Burger King launched its iconic slogan: 'Have it your way.' The highly successful campaign was designed to emphasise that, unlike McDonald’s, Burger King would adjust its menu items to suit its customer preferences: extra ketchup, no gherkin – you name it. There was even a jaunty jingle to go with it: ‘Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us.' The slogan was revived in the early 2000s, to commercial success.

Burger King opened its first UK location in 1976, in central London. Widespread success came in 1989, when 150 Wimpy restaurants were converted into Burger Kings – and by 1994, there were 250 Burger King restaurants across the country. By 1997, the number had almost doubled to 465, after a large number of Little Chef roadside restaurants also became Burger Kings. An Oxford Street branch is pictured in 1987.

In 1976, Burger King replaced its animated mascot with the Marvelous Magical Burger King, a Tudor-inspired monarch with a red beard who ruled the Burger King Kingdom and performed magic tricks. He was played by Dick Gjonola, and his companions included Sir Shake-a-Lot (a knight that liked milkshakes), and the Burger Thing (a large puppet designed to look like a burger painting).

To compete with McDonald’s range of breakfast items, Burger King launched its own morning menu in 1978. The two were almost identical until 1983, when Burger King introduced the Croissan’wich: a croissant stuffed with either a sausage patty, bacon or ham, plus eggs and American-style cheese. Later adverts featured the slogan: 'Croissan'wich beats the stuffin' out of Egg McMuffin.'

In 1979, Burger King made one of the first attempts by a major fast food chain to specifically target a certain population demographic (adults aged 18-34), and introduced a line of speciality non-burger sandwiches. Its new chicken, steak and fish offerings increased sales by a hefty 15%. The most popular, and most enduring, of the non-burger sandwiches is the Original Chicken Sandwich, marketed as the Chicken Royale in the UK.

In the 80s, Burger King jumped on healthy eating trends to offer salad bars and lighter meals – and in the early 2000s there came the Low-Carb Whopper, which saw the classic burger's bun removed and its contents speared onto a stick. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn't last long.

Aged four years old, Sarah Michelle Gellar (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) appeared in a 1981 Burger King advert proclaiming that McDonald’s burgers were 20% smaller than Burger King’s. Since this was thought to be the first time that a fast food company had directly named a rival in an advert, McDonald’s sued. Gellar, five by the time of the lawsuit, remembers being banned from eating at McDonald’s – and even being unable to go to friends’ McDonald’s birthday parties!

One of Burger King’s most famous flops was the 1985 Where’s Herb? campaign, which centred on the premise that Herb was the only man in America who’d never eaten a Whopper. Customers were offered $5,000 (around £4,000) if they spotted Herb in a store but, by the time Herb’s appearance was revealed, many people had lost interest. The expensive campaign was dropped after three months, and profits fell by 40% in 1986.

In 1992, Burger King trialled dinnertime table service. Customers could snack on free popcorn while they waited for staff to bring them Dinner Baskets containing either a burger, a steak sandwich, a chicken fillet or some fried shrimp, plus fries or a baked potato, and coleslaw. It didn't prove particularly successful, and was discontinued after two years.

In 2004, an employee at Burger King’s advertising firm found a huge, hollow, 1970s-era Marvelous Magical Burger King head for sale on eBay. The head was bought and restored, and featured in a new campaign, where an actor wearing said giant head would appear in surreal situations (like popping up to offer a Croissan’wich to a man in bed). The ads went viral.

A notable flop for Burger King came in 2013, when it trialled Satisfries: a lower-fat chip designed to soak up less oil. Satisfries contained around 20% fewer calories than regular Burger King fries, but proved unpopular with customers. As such, they were quickly dropped.

Burger King has trialled some eccentric menu items in its time. Highlights include 2012’s bacon ice cream sundaes, 2016’s Whopperito (a Whopper in a burrito), and 2010’s Sprout Surprise (a UK-only Whopper served with Brussels sprouts). In May 2022, Germany's Burger King launched a pregnancy craving menu, which featured burgers filled with vanilla ice cream and olives, cake and beef, and currywurst and fried herring (pictured). This was very limited edition, though, being offered only on Mother's Day at select Berlin restaurants.

In 2017, the Russian branch of Burger King launched its own cryptocurrency, WhopperCoin, as a kind of loyalty scheme. This did not prove successful; by 2018, the value of a WhopperCoin had fallen to $0.002 – and, by the end of 2019, trading volume had declined to zero. A store in Moscow is pictured here. 

To promote its mobile app in the US, Burger King held a cheeky nine-day campaign in 2018 that – using the app’s location data – offered customers inside McDonald’s restaurants the opportunity to buy a Whopper for just one cent if they could get to a Burger King within the hour. Burger King’s app was downloaded more than 1.5 million times, and became the number one app in both the Apple and Google Play stores.

Burger King made history by introducing the entirely plant-based Impossible Whopper in August 2019, leading the way for copycat vegan fast food options. Using a faux-beef soy patty from Impossible Foods, the Impossible Whopper has been very successful, though some criticise the way it’s cooked on the same grill as meat patties.

In February 2019, Burger King obtained the rights to some 1982 footage of Andy Warhol eating a Whopper, which they used in their Super Bowl advert with the hashtag #EatLikeAndy. US customers ordering that day via DoorDash could select an Andy Warhol Mystery Box, including a plastic bottle of ketchup and a platinum Andy Warhol wig.

The first Burger King logo was a simple half sun. This changed to the sitting King drawing in 1955, and in 1969 became the company name sandwiched between two bun halves. This logo remained roughly the same until 1999, when it was redesigned: the bun halves were set on an angle and surrounded by a blue circle. In 2021, Burger King returned to its 1969-99 design, pictured.

Back in the 1960s and 70s, Burger King uniforms were orange and yellow with poofy hats, while in the 1980s they changed to red stripes and baseball caps. The 1990s saw the uniform turn blue, while the current uniform (since 2015) sets the colours of the Whopper against a grey background. We'd vote for the return of the poofy hats, pictured in a 1974 advert.

Did you know that, just like the McDonald’s Gold Card and the Nando’s Black Card, Burger King has its own Crown Card, which grants a lifetime of free food to very special friends of the franchise? With only 12 people reported to own one, this ticket to endless Whoppers is exclusive indeed. Named recipients include Hugh Laurie, George Lucas and Robert Downey Jr.

In May 2020, Burger King made headlines by introducing novelty oversized versions of its cardboard crown to encourage social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though they were only available at select stores in Germany, pictures of the crowns spread quickly across social media.

Today, Burger King has an app, self-service kiosks, vegan burgers and more – and is still capable of causing a stir. The chain drove fast food fans into a frenzy when, on 1 April 2023, they announced a collaboration with Doritos: Chilli Heatwave Chicken Fries. The timing had people dismissing it as a particularly tasty April Fool's, but the company did actually release the flame-grilled flavoured Doritos at restaurants across the UK. Around the same time, the company announced the expected closure of around 400 stores due to the collapse of two major franchisees – though profits were up overall.

The Whopper is no stranger to a novelty makeover, with special editions released for Halloween and an extra-hot take with ghost pepper chillies. Its latest look is straight out of the Spider-Verse: a red-and-black Whopper launched to celebrate the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which hits cinemas on June 2. The bold, bright burger, in a beetroot-dyed bun and with a web-like slice of Swiss cheese, is being sold in selected restaurants in the US until the end of June, alongside a matching Spider-Verse Sundae.

Now discover the incredible story of how McDonald's took over the world