This Fast Food Rival Is Coming For Burger King's Crown (Literally) With A Super Shady Deal

Competitors are ratcheting up their marketing campaigns, not to highlight how great their products are, but how rivals are second-rate. Fast food chains poking fun at the competition is nothing new — remember when rival fast food CEOs made fun of McDonald's viral Big Arch fumble? But Carl's Jr. is going even lower with its latest promotion, offering free food to anyone who takes a Burger King crown and photographs it being tossed in the trash (via Instagram).

Carl's Jr. is incentivizing customers to take part in its campaign of contempt for Burger King by offering folks a free Angus Maximus Burger, but only to the first 100 people to send an Instagram DM of a photo of a BK crown sitting atop refuse. The deal runs from September 18 through 25 and is only available to customers who are 18 and older and are Carl's Jr. My Rewards members. If you have purchased a fresh burger from Burger King recently, you can also submit a picture of the receipt to enter the promotion, as long as it's dated between January 1 and September 7, 2026. Winners can claim their free burger through October 27.

Carl's Jr. has never really been a leader in the fast food industry. Not that the restaurant is bad; it's just kind of ... there. But it's aiming to change that by increasing engagement with the brand, and as the saying goes, if you want a crowd, start a fight. Dishonoring the King in a public display of disrespect is certainly one way to get eyeballs on the chain.

Encouraging customers to publicly disrespect the Crown is more than just a gimmick from a chain that has struggled to remain relevant in the fast food industry. The QSR 2026 annual report for the top 50 fast food chains ranks Carl's Jr. at 37th based on sales, growth, and other metrics. Burger King is ranked eighth. It's got a big hill to climb to reach the top ten, and one surefire way to engage customers and create excitement around the brand, especially in our current rage-driven society, is to start a conflict with a recognizable competing chain.

So far there hasn't been a response from Burger King, but it can't be too mad. It's not like Burger King hasn't committed scandalous acts in the past. Besides, to the King, Carl's Jr. probably doesn't even register as serious competition given the stark disparity in each chain's QSR ranking. Still, how fun would it be to see both brands lean into the rivalry?

It's worth noting that although Carl's Jr.'s latest promotion is super shady, it doesn't want folks taking things too far. The usual list of problematic content — illegal, defamatory, and obscene pictures — will disqualify people from the contest. But if customers toss a crown in the garbage and otherwise keep it clean, a free burger on Carl's Jr. may be the reward for their trouble.