Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP (Getty Images)
Around this time of year, movie theaters, Netflix, and anywhere else you find entertainment is chocked full of scary movies and television shows. For 31 days in October, everyone seems to want to be scared for at least a moment or two. It’s thrilling when endorphins flood your system after a serial killer jumps out from behind a closet door. But watching too many scary scenes has the potential to give us nightmares. Fast food definitely can give us nightmares too. Or, at the very least, become a digestive nightmare. But if Burger King made a burger that actually gave you nightmares would you eat it?
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Does this seem like a little bit of over-the-top branding? Ooh, spooky burger! It’s not the first time Burger King has stooped to such absurd marketing strategies. In 2015, the company debuted its Halloween Whopper in the U.S. Let’s just say the consumer response was…crappy.
The new Nightmare King has a different effect on eaters: it actually gives them nightmares. In a collaboration with the Paramount Trials and Florida Sleep & Neuro Diagnostic Services, Inc. and Goldforest Inc., Burger King did a scientific study on 100 people for 10 nights. Each participant ate a Nightmare King before they went to sleep (eating food before bed is never a great idea) and researchers then tracked each participant’s heart rate, brain activity, and breathing. They also determined whether or not the participants had any heart-pounding nightmares.
The scientists determined that after eating this creepy sandwich, participants’ nightmares increased 3.5 times more than when they went to bed without eating it. You can’t argue with science. Those are some pretty monstrous results.
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The sandwich itself is quite terrifying (to vegetarians) as it consists of a quarter-pound flame-grilled beef patty, a crispy chicken fillet, American cheese, bacon, mayo, and onions all nestled between an eerily green sesame seed bun. It will be available at participating Burger King restaurants for a limited time beginning on Oct. 22.
