Burger King Enters the Breakfast Battle With ‘Burgers at Breakfast’

In the words of Ron Burgundy, “here comes trouble.” Burger King has entered the fast food breakfast melee as major fast food chains compete for a hungry morning clientele.

The trade blog BurgerBusiness reports that Burger King is rolling out a “Burgers at Breakfast” menu at 5,000 locations that will offer a surprisingly wide selection of burgers and sandwiches, including the Whopper, before 10 a.m. While some Burger King stores have been flipping burgers early in the day, “Burgers at Breakfast” will make the menu a formal option.

The new policy departs from other fast food chains’ strategy of offering new early morning menu options tailored toward breakfast–even Burger King has already been promoting its breakfast dollar menu–and looks to capitalize on the company’s time-tested products.

McDonald’s dominates the breakfast market with items like the Egg McMuffin, but challengers like Taco Bell have recently been trying to gain ground. Taco Bell in March began opening its stores several hours earlier and rolled out a marketing campaign spotlighting offerings like waffle tacos. One ad featured people who share the same name as Ronald McDonald proclaiming their love for Taco Bell over McD’s.

The response from McDonald’s was swift: Its stores offered free coffee in the morning for a week and its marketers came out swinging with ads of their own:

[BurgerBusiness]