Last December, public favourability towards advertising was just 25%. In 1992, it was 48%. This is according to research conducted by the Trust Working Group, a collaboration between the Advertising Association, ISBA and Credos whose research reveals that trust in advertising is at a record low.

When it comes to boosting consumer trust, the UK’s political organisations and their flagrant use of marketing channels has done nothing to help. A case in point was the bus employed by Vote Leave as an advertising tactic back in the 2016 EU referendum campaign. The red Brexit bus wrongly claimed that the UK sends over £350 million to the EU each week which, should the British public vote to leave the EU, could be spent on the NHS. The figure emblazoned on the bus’s side was seared into the the minds of voters around the country, despite the fact that the actual number is more likely to be £181 million according to the Office for National Statistics.

The original Brexit bus was acutely damaging for trust in the advertising industry, so it was only a matter of time before the infamous episode became an ad in itself. This week marked the latest in a series of bus related marketing executions as Burger King parked up outside the Houses of Parliament in a bus with a picture of the Whopper burger on the side and the words, “another whopper on the side of a bus. Must be an election.”

The provocative campaign devised by BBH London with PR handled by Frank PR poked fun at Westminster politicians as the issue of trust has become an increasingly central facet of the upcoming general election. As a Burger King spokesperson said, “As the Home of the Whopper, we felt that if anyone has the right to stick whoppers on the side of a bus, it’s us.”

The irony that advertising for burgers is more regulated that politics is highlighted through the campaign. It sends a message that, while many brands fear joining the political debate, when one is confident in its tone of voice and values, it can play a legitimate role in political discourse.