Burger King is determined to make its polarizing new menu item the next Whopper

Burger King just launched a new take on its grilled hot dog: the Whopper Dog.

On Monday, the fast-food chain announced via social media the debut of the Whopper Dog, a grilled hot dog topped with lettuce, ketchup, mayo, onions, and pickles - the same toppings as a Whopper.

Since the launch of Burger King's first hot dog in February, the chain has promised that new variations on the hot dog will be added to the menu over time.

"We're not seeing grilled dogs as a product launch," Alex Macedo, Burger King's North America president, said at a Grilled Dog launch event in February. "We're tapping into a whole new category."

At the time, Macedo said that Burger King wanted to make Grilled Dogs the "Whopper of hot dogs."

Immediate responses to the Whopper Dog on social media have been less than positive, with users responding to Burger King's tweet saying the Whopper Dog looks "gross" and "the most awful thing on the menu."

However, many first impressions of the chain's grilled hot dog were similarly negative. Steve Cuozzo at The New York Post called it a "disgusting disgrace," and "the worst embarrassment in the name of horizontal meat matter since Anthony Weiner discovered Twitter," referring to the US representative from New York who infamously sexted a woman he met on Twitter.  

Despite these criticisms, adding a hot dog to the menu is already paying off for Burger King.

In April, the chain's parent company Restaurant Brands International reported that Burger King's same-store sales grew 4.4% in the US and Canada in the first quarter, thanks in large part to the launch of Grilled Dogs.