Fries King? Burger King touts faux name change

A Burger King PR stunt is doing the trick Wednesday -- there's a lot of social media buzz about the fast food giant's supposed name change to "Fries King."

Burger King's website shows a redone company logo. An abstract, upright pouch of french fries replaces the familiar, stylized hamburger, and the words "Fries King" appear over the logo in place of "Burger King." It's all rendered in the same style, colors and roughly same dimensions as the "old" logo.

Below the logo comes this attention-getter: "Formerly Burger King."

BURGER KING: Concocts lower-cal 'Satisfries'

Incredible coincidence alert: The move comes at the same time the company is rolling out revamped French fries that it says are healthier than ordinary ones.

Dubbed "Satisfries," they have 30% less fat and 20% fewer calories than Burger King's regular fries -- and 40% less fat and 30% fewer calories than McDonald's fries, USA TODAY reported last week.

But perhaps not all the PR in this case is positive, AdWeek's Tim Nudd writes.

"There are a few downsides to this. First, it implies the burgers are probably not very good. And second, it confuses people," he says in an article on Burger King's supposed name change.

But "it does appear to be making people hungry," he says.