Burger King’s proprietary Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II operator skin, a man with a beautiful mustache and Burger Town t-shirt, is selling on eBay for about half of the full game’s $69.99 asking price.
I will repeat that for your benefit. Burger King, home of the Whopper, partnered with Modern Warfare II and brought forth from its troves of hot grease an exclusive Call of Duty skin. It is a man with a beautiful mustache and shirt that says Burger Town, the CoD franchise’s burger emporium and easter egg, on it. The man, let’s call him Bobby, is listed on eBay for around $30.
This is not what Burger King intended. You’re supposed to buy the skin, bundled with one hour of double XP, as part of the fast food empire’s Modern Warfare II meal, or the Modern Warfare II Baconator Meal from Hungry Jack’s if you’re in Australia.
But since the promotion is only available in 39 countries, excluding the U.S. and U.K., some people are left yearning for the burger man and will do anything to get him. Elsewhere, places like Mexico and Saudi Arabia will let customers eat their fries from within a Modern Warfare II palace, CoD-themed Burger Kings. And in Paris, on October 29 and 30, customers will even be able to play the game on an ordering kiosk, Adweek reports. Maybe they’ll do Doom next.
But I’m getting ahead of myself in dreaming. People can think only of the mustache right now. It’s so…full. Ebay history shows that re-sold skins are going for as much as $39.99, though most sales sit between $20 and $35, all of which is much cheaper than a plane ticket. The Burger King skin seems to be limited and not actually region-locked, so if you do spend nine-point-five Whoppers on an out-of-bounds Call of Duty skin, you will at least be able to use it.
Activision Blizzard, Call of Duty’s publisher, has its current marketing strategy determined by chief marketing officer Fernando Machado, who, before video games, led several ad campaigns for Burger King as Restaurant Brands International’s CMO. I will start playing Call of Duty dialogue backwards and let you know if that’s all Burger King ads, too.