The company successfully differentiated itself from McDonald's, its primary rival, when it launched the Have It Your Way advertising campaign in 1974. Unlike McDonald’s, which had made it difficult and time-consuming for customers to special-order standard items (such as a plain hamburger), Burger King Restaurants allowed people to change the way a food item was prepared without a long wait.
Pillsbury (including Burger King) was purchased in 1989 by Grand Metropolitan, which in turn merged with Guinness to from Diageo, a British spirits company. Diageo’s management neglected the Burger King business, leading to poor operating performance. Burger King was damaged to the point that major franchises went out of business and the total value of the firm declined. Diageo’s management decided to divest the money losing chain by selling it to a partnership private equity firm led by TPG Capital in 2002.