• by Thom Forbes , February 11, 2016

In perhaps its most sure-fire menu introduction since sliced buns, Burger King yesterday announced that after 18 months of market testing, it is permanently bringing two types of grilled all-beef hot dogs to its 7,150 restaurants nationwide. The “flame-grilled” dogs will be available everywhere Feb. 23 in two varieties: a classic version with ketchup, mustard, onions, and relish at a suggested retail price of $1.99, and a chili cheese version for $2.39.

“The company brought the item to five markets last year — Salt Lake City, Memphis, Baltimore, Detroit and Kansas City — but made sure to steer clear of New York City and Chicago,” reports Sarah Whitten for CNBC.

“We wanted to keep it under the radar ... we wanted to catch people by surprise,” Alex Macedo, president of Burger King North America, tells her. “The Whopper is America's favorite burger, and we want this to be America's favorite hot dog.” 

“The move comes as Burger King works to push up sales amid intensifying competition, with McDonald’s offering breakfast items all day to spark a turnaround, while Wendy’s offers a ‘4 for $4’ deal to get customers in the door,” reports the AP’s Candice Choi on ABC News.com. “In 2014, Burger King’s sales rose 2.1% at established locations in the U.S. and Canada. Parent company Restaurant Brands International Inc. reports results for 2015 next week.”

USA Today’s Hadley Malcolm points out “the launch has Burger King poised to steal a sizable bite of a market dominated by convenience stores, wholesale clubs and retailers like Home Depot.” In fact, she reports, “Burger King joins smaller fast food companies including Dairy Queen and Sonic as one of the few major restaurant chains to offer hot dogs, an item typically relegated to summer barbecues and 4th of July celebrations — and still far overshadowed by hamburgers regardless.”

But calling the introduction “probably the most obvious product launch ever,” Macedo and the AP’s Choi bandied about failed introductions from the past such as low-cal “Satisfries” in 2013.  Popcorn, too. “They would give it away for free to guests in the restaurants. I wasn't here, but I hear a lot about the popcorn days,” Macedo tells Choi.

CNN Money’s Cristina Alesci reports that the chain “is planning a major advertising campaign across social media and television” to alert the nation to the roll-out. “But it decided against holding an official hotdog eating contest.”

It has apparently also decided against releasing an internal training video with “local dog expert Snoop Dogg … showing workers the ins and outs of the new menu items.” But, as is its wont, “TMZ managed to grab a leak of the instructional skit,” as MTV’s Sasha Geffen puts it in a piece that embeds the 1:22 video.

“We're told BK has their employees watch videos on all menu items ... and execs wanted to add a fun twist to pump everyone up,” TMZ writes on a page that, curiously, did not contain the video this morning. “Unfortunately for BK employees, Snoop's title of ‘Grilled Dogs Training Ambassador’ is only ceremonial ... so don't get too excited for smoke breaks,” it concludes. 

There is also a Spanish-language version of the training video featuring Charo.

“After a couple of weeks [of testing], we found the employees could build a hot dog just as fast as they could build a Whopper,” Macedo said at the product announcement that was, The Verge’s Ross Miller reports, “delivered in a showy Manhattan loft.” And it had all the “gravitas and spectacle” of a rollout of the latest high-tech product, he suggests.

“The approaches for selling you a $700 tablet aren’t dissimilar to the approaches companies use to sell you two-dollar hot dogs — whether you’re supposed to play with the product or eat it,” Miller writes.

Consumers buying into either indulgence might pay heed to another story breaking this morning: “A new study published in the journal Neurology found that people who weren’t as physically active in midlife had smaller brains than their peers 20 years later,” reports Alexandra Sifferlin for Time. 

Naturally, we want to keep you engaged with Marketing Daily for as many years as possible, so after downing too many dogs or overindulging in texting, here are “10 Exercises You Can Do At Your Desk” as compiled by Time last September.