text: NEW YORK (AP) — Burger King is scrapping its 40-year-old "Have It Your Way" slogan in favor of the more personal "Be Your Way." 
   
   The chain says the new tag line will roll out across its marketing in the U.S., including in a TV ad that will begin airing Monday night. The line made its first appearance in an online video last month. 
   
   Burger King says in a statement that the new motto is intended to remind people that "they can and should live how they want anytime. It's ok to not be perfect ... Self-expression is most important and it's our differences that make us individuals instead of robots." 
   
   It may seem odd for a fast-food company to champion individuality, but Burger King isn't the only one trying to project a hip, non-corporate attitude to gain favor with customers. Since 2012, for instance, Taco Bell has been touting its "Live Mas" slogan, which means "live more" in Spanish. 
   
   Fernando Machado, Burger King's senior vice president of global brand management, noted in an interview that "Have It Your Way" focuses only on the purchase — the ability to customize a burger. By contrast, he said "Be Your Way" is about making a connection with a person's greater lifestyle. 
   
   "We want to evolve from just being the functional side of things to having a much stronger emotional appeal," said Machado, who joined the company in March. 
   
   Whether the new tag line can help Burger King's image over the long term remains to be seen. The company, along with McDonald's Corp., is fighting to boost sales at a time when people are moving toward foods they feel are fresher or higher quality. And Laura Ries, president of the brand consulting firm Ries & Ries, noted that companies can come across as trying too hard to be cool. 
   
   "The problem is that people don't see themselves as living the Burger King lifestyle," she said. "You've got to be realistic with the place that your brand holds in real life." 
   
   Burger King says new slogan was developed with ad agency DAVID, a unit of WPP. 
   
   Machado noted that Burger King hasn't been actively using the "Have It Your Way" slogan for some time in the U.S. The company, which is based in Miami, Florida, also will stop using its more recent "Taste Is King" motto. "Be Your Way" will start in the U.S. but eventually be rolled out globally, the company says. 
   
   The switch is the latest in a series of marketing and menu changes under Burger King's new management. The chain was bought by investment firm 3G Capital in late 2010, then taken public again in 2012. Soon after, 3G replaced the chain's CEO and early this year, Axel Schwan was appointed as global chief marketing officer. 
   
   In the latest quarter, Burger King said sales at U.S. restaurants open at least a year edged up 0.1 percent, hurt by bad weather. 
   
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   Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi ||||| Burger King — ever aspiring for pop-culture coolness — is tweaking its slogan to something slightly hipper: ” Be Your Way.” 
   
   That would, perhaps, be Millennial-speak for the more dated but culturally iconic “Have it Your Way.” 
   
   “We want to be talked about and connected to pop culture,” says Fernando Machado, senior VP of global brand management at Burger King Worldwide, in a phone interview. “We want to be an iconic brand way beyond quick-service restaurants.” 
   
   That, of course, doesn’t come simply. Especially for a brand that’s changed slogans about as frequently as it’s changed CEOs in recent decades. 
   
   Among past slogans (in no particular order): 
   
   – Aren’t you hungry? 
   
   – Your way right away. 
   
   – This is a Burger King town. 
   
   – Wake up with the King. 
   
   – We do it like you do it. 
   
   – The best food for fast times. 
   
   – Get your burger’s worth. 
   
   And, perhaps the most inglorious of all: “Where’s Herb?” 
   
   The new one, “Be Your Way,” immediately will be melded into all national and regional campaigns, Machado says. 
   
   It reflects the drumbeat Millennial theme of customization — which has been core to Burger King for decades. (Burger King says a Whopper sandwich, for example, technically can be ordered 221,184 different ways.) 
   
   For what it’s worth, BK’s had a decent first half of 2014 — with its stock up more than 9% over the first five months. 
   
   Just maybe the new slogan puts BK slightly more in tune with the more Millennial-friendly slogans at McDonald’s (“I’m Loving It”) and Taco Bell (“Live Mas”). 
   
   Or you could combine all three into: “Mas Live Lovin’ Your Way.” ||||| Something weird is happening to the country’s premier purveyors of mass-produced hamburger-like substances. 
   
   First, we have McDonald’s, the Godzilla of fast food joints. The mega-chain announced a new Happy Meal character on Monday, a friendly face named “Happy” meant to serve “as an ambassador for balanced and wholesome eating,” according to McDonald’s. That’s great! Wholesome eating is terrific, good for McDonald’s. So what does the new Happy Meal character look like? 
   
   Well! That’s certainly not a living nightmare that will terrify children and discourage them from ever considering fruits or vegetables. 
   
   Happy, the McDonald’s Happy Meal Box Who Came To Life Because You Didn’t Clean Your Room Last Night, was first introduced in France in 2009 before making its (his?) way across Europe and into Latin America, McDonald’s says. 
   
   Meanwhile, stepping away from anthropomorphic terror for a moment, we have Burger King. The company is apparently moving away from the “Have It Your Way” slogan and pitching a new one, Ad Age reports. 
   
   The new slogan? “Be Your Way.” 
   
   As for why they are moving from “Have It Your Way” to the grammatically-questionable “Be Your Way,” here’s Ad Age: 
   
   According to the press release, the new tagline “reminds people that no matter who they are, they can order how they want to in Burger King restaurants and that they can and should live how they want anytime. It’s OK to not be perfect. Self-expression is most important and it’s our differences that make us individuals instead of robots.” So why bother changing the tagline? Fernando Machado, the chain’s senior VP-global brand marketing, said that while “Have It Your Way” was more about the “functional side” of Burger King, letting customers know that customization was always an option. 
   
   This seems like a good time to remind you that in April, Burger King announced the Chicken Big King sandwich with a press released headlined “Burger King Is Not Clucking Around.” 
   
   Okay, just out of curiosity, what is going on with Wendy’s these days? 
   
   Caption this! Tell us what she’s saying and your line could become a subtitle in our Tuscan Chicken on Ciabatta movie pic.twitter.com/zdAiIZZZJm — Wendy’s (@Wendys) May 18, 2014 
   
   Brands are strange.
target: – In what Burger King says is a move to "be connected to pop culture," the chain is ditching its 40-year-old "Have It Your Way" slogan in favor of "Be Your Way," which will be rolled out across the US in the weeks ahead. "We want to be an iconic brand way beyond quick-service restaurants," a Burger King exec tells USA Today, which notes that previous BK slogans have included "Aren't you hungry," "We do it like you do it," "Get your burger's worth," and "Where's Herb?" The switch to the "grammatically-questionable" slogan comes amid other odd fast-food marketing moves, including Happy, the anthropomorphic "living nightmare" that is McDonald's new Happy Meal character, writes Mark Berman at the Washington Post. But marketing experts aren't sure whether Burger King's attempt to be hip will do much to boost sales. "The problem is that people don't see themselves as living the Burger King lifestyle," the chief of brand consulting firm Ries & Ries tells the AP. "You've got to be realistic with the place that your brand holds in real life." (One part of that "Burger King lifestyle" appears to be the chain's new breakfast offering—burgers.)