In The 1970s, Burger King Flopped Hard With This Discontinued Menu Item — And We Can See Why

The world of fast food is one of cutthroat competition. Burger King has long lived in the shadow of McDonald's, scooping up a respectably large second-place share of the fast food burger market, while also always striving for more. For these global franchises, grabbing a larger chunk of the market often means experimenting with new menu items. For example, the original Burger King menu was quite limited before the Whopper appeared and changed everything in 1957. The trouble is, in this endless search for novelty, these brands sometimes get a little bit too creative. Such was the case with a Burger King invention launched in 1973 with a heavy advertising campaign only to flop almost immediately: the Big Plain burger.

Knowing nothing about this burger aside from the name, it is not hard to believe that it got off to a bad start. Unless your target audience is exclusively the pickiest eaters of the world, marketing any food as plain leaves little to desire. And plain it was. This now-discontinued Burger King menu item was a large burger on a bun with absolutely nothing else. It was just a big, plain burger.

The biggest issue with the Big Plain, aside from the decidedly low appeal of a burger sans toppings, is that it was also, somehow, not cost-effective. The quarter-pound patty was reportedly exactly the same as that of the Whopper, but when the Big Plain hit the menu it cost a nickel more, at $0.90 compared to $0.85 for a Whopper.

The Big Plain — understandably — did not last very long on the Burger King menu. Before the end of 1974, it was gone. During that window of time, the chain also introduced its "Have It Your Way" slogan, which further undermined the need for the Big Plain. If you can order your Whopper however you want, just ask for it plain and save yourself a nickel.

The demise of the Big Plain likely did not come as much of a surprise to anyone outside of Burger King's research and development department, but it is far from the only menu item to quietly disappear into our collective memory. The Yumbo is another Burger King sandwich that came and went, though this one did at least enjoy a spell of popularity before its demise. A hot ham and cheese sandwich, the Yumbo first appeared in 1971. Within about five years its novelty had waned, and the Yumbo sandwich began its descent from many menus. It did make several brief returns in the '80s and '00s, but not to its same initial excitement.

In 2014, Burger King brought back the Yumbo. Slightly altered from the original recipe, this version arrived with lettuce and mayo on the chain's signature long, skinny hoagie-style bun. Similar to Burger King's Enormous Omelet Sandwich — another now-discontinued item, this time featuring two eggs, sausage, bacon, and cheese — it's hard not to imagine that the shape of these sandwiches plays into their failure. Burger King calls it a hoagie roll, but it isn't. It's a hoagie-shaped hamburger bun, and a strange way to eat either an omelet or a ham and cheese sandwich. Despite these various flops, however, Burger King's search for fast food novelty continues.