12.07.2008

Burger King is Despicable: A Rant

I'm hesitant to write this post at all because it just brings more attention to Burger King's detestable "Whopper Virgins" ad campaign, but I am so deeply disturbed by it all that I have to vent.

I first saw a teaser ad for this campaign during SNL last night. The ad asks: "What happens if you take Transylvanian Farmers who have never eaten a burger and ask them to compare Whopper versus Big Mac?"


Photo by spinnerin

This immediately struck me as a strange sort of cultural imperialism. My father was born and raised in Transylvania, and I have visited the Transylvanian countryside twice myself. The people in these rural villages have endured horrible oppression by totalitarian dictatorships and still drive horse-drawn carts to transport their goods, but Burger King only cares to exploit their "virgin" palates so they can outsell McDonalds.

I headed to the Whopper Virgins website to do my research before writing this angry diatribe. Once there, I was greeted by an extended ad for Burger King shot in "documentary style," complete with behind-the-scenes interviews on the making of the commercial. The ad followed the crew as they found people in three "remote locations" who had never tried a burger before in their lives. The three locations turned out to be Romania, Thailand, and Greenland.

They do the taste test, and - SURPRISE! - most of the tasters prefer the Whopper. That's predictable. The thing that really made me cringe was listening to the "filmmakers" marvel at how the villagers didn't know how to eat a burger, while violin-and-synth inspirational music swells in the background. Are we supposed to be sentimental about this?

"Here, have some cholesterol-laden, artery-clogging, processed food to replace your organic, hearty, home-grown diet! Oh, how cute! You don't know how to eat it! Well, you'll learn."

It's like the culinary equivalent of distributing smallpox-infected blankets.

The whole thing was amazingly condescending.

But wait, there's more! It turns out the "Transylvanian villagers" mentioned in the ad aren't from Transylvania at all. They're from Budesti, a town 30 kilometers southeast of Bucharest. That's on the opposite end of Romania from Transylvania. On top of that, the villagers they interviewed appeared to be Roma (a.k.a. Gypsies), an ethnic group that has been consistently marginalized and persecuted throughout history. But don't fret! Now they have American fast food to make them happy!

And while we're talking persecution, let's jump to the Thailand location for the Whopper Virgins shoot. The credits for the ad thank the "Hmong of Baan Mon Kghor and Baan Khun Chang Kian, Thailand." I was born in Fresno, California, where there is a large population of Hmong immigrants and I grew up with many Hmong friends. Hmong people live in Fresno for the same reason they now live in Thailand: they are political refugees from Laos.


Photo by Phil-osophical Bird

But wait, there's more! They're not just your average, everyday refugees from an oppressive communist dictatorship (like my dad was), they've been forced out of Laos thanks to lots of United States meddling. See, in the 1960s, the CIA started recruiting Hmong people to fight a secret war against the Laotian government. When that didn't work out in our favor, the Laotian government began systematically targeting the Hmong. That spurred thousands to flee to Thailand, where many still live in refugee camps.

But all Burger King cares about is whether the Hmong prefer their burger over the other guy's.

"Sorry our government is responsible for the complete displacement of your people. We know all the death and destruction must have been a drag. As a consolation prize, have a burger! (Preferably a Whopper.)"

And Burger King has the gall to pretend they're doing these people a favor. This is a direct quote from the ad:

"They told us yesterday, 'no, we want to experience other things in this world, too. We want to taste other foods, we want to see other people, we want to see other things."

Apparently, eating a Whopper is the best we can offer.

Then they show a Romanian villager giving a guy from the American crew an elaborate, handmade fur jacket. The American guy is amazed at this and says, "these things take a month to make and this guy just handed it to me!" So give it back. It may be seen as rude, but those villagers need that jacket more than you do. He's not going to wear it in Los Angeles, while shopping at the Grove or taking a stroll down the Santa Monica pier. At best, he'll show it off to his other commercial-director friends as a quaint souvenir of his morally-bereft visit to Romania.

The final ethnic group Burger King decided to exploit were the Inuit of Greenland. I don't know a lot about their culture, so I'm not going to pretend. But this guy really made me happy:

Burger King

"I like seal meat better."

Amen, brother. A-men!

--------------

P.S. Discussion point: what's worse? This Burger King campaign, or what Borat did to that other Romanian village. Debate and discuss.

36 comments:

Katie said...

Thanks for writing this - the ad sounds truly wretched...like, how did this get appoved on, like, any level? Maybe I've been away too long, but I had this great notion that the US was growing up, in terms of being a tiny bit less self-centered and a little bit more wise to the global community? Fuggggggggggggg.

Katie said...

Thanks for writing this - the ad sounds truly wretched...like, how did this get appoved on, like, any level? Maybe I've been away too long, but I had this great notion that the US was growing up, in terms of being a tiny bit less self-centered and a little bit more wise to the global community? Fuggggggggggggg.

Anonymous said...

How low can Stacy Peralta go...........
If you are desperate for money I will give you a couple of Bucks.
Goes to show, large corporations will do anything to sell product.......

I think M.D.C said it best Corporate Death Burger..

Anonymous said...

Agreed on all counts Laura. Just another example of the insiduous effects of marketing and advertising in our society. The truly sad thing though is that people will lap this shit up - "oh, look at their cute costumes. and they've never seen a burger before. ahhh."

Edward Bernays could be said to be the father of modern marketing. He had this to say:

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."

Anonymous said...

I disagree with you 100% on this ad and have written about my thoughts on my site.

Food is intricate part of culture, and I think we should be encouraging everyone in the world, from industrial and non-industrialized countries alike to experience other cultures whenever they get the opportunity.

If the situation was reversed, and a restaurant chain in Thailand was flying to the U.S. to give us the opportunity to try a food from Thailand that none of us had ever experienced before, would you refuse to eat it? Wouldn't you want the opportunity to experience something from another culture you had never had before?

Anonymous said...

You can read my full thoughts about the people who are bitching and moaning about these ads here:

http://www.sogoodblog.com/2008/12/04/whopper-virgins-spare-me-your-outrage/

N said...

Jon, while I appreciate your counterpoint, and agree wholeheartedly that one of the best ways to experience another culture is through food, I think the Whopper or the Big Mac is hardly indicative of true American food culture.

I've lived in the US my whole life and never once eaten a Whopper or a Big Mac. Contrary to the rant on your website, there are lots of Americans like me. And I'm not even a vegetarian. (I was, for a period of about 10 years, but have since reformed and now fully embrace being a carnivore.) I also eat fast food, but the Whopper has never appealed to me.

Change begins at home, no? Perhaps Burger King should stop offending international sensibilities and actually work on enticing the real, rapt audience in its own backyard (the "low-hanging fruit" in marketing speak). They've already begun by trying to embrace more humane practices among their sources. When they start providing aid to real American farmers (not conglomerate-owned processing plants) and the undernourished in our own communities (they very same people who keep them in business), AND they make a burger that can compete with a 4x4 Animal Style from In-n-Out, then perhaps I'll end my virgin ways.

N said...

As for the Thailand issue, I would not eat something from a Thai fast food chain if they flew over here and offered it for free. I'm way too happy with the wonderful, authentic Thai food provided by many family-owned restaurants throughout this fair city.

IF was Indian fast food, maybe, cuz I'll eat anything Indian--from my friend's mother's own kitchen, to those wonderful microwave packs at Trader Joe's.

Perhaps Paula Deen, Emeral Lagasse and Ina Garten should all hop on a plane for a humanitarian mission introducing folks to what American food (and hospitality) is really all about.

andrew said...

I disagree with you N. You might not love the big mac, but drive across this country and it becomes clear...

There's nothing more American than McDonalds. It represents us perfectly.

This is a great marketing campaign in a long line of great BK marketing campaigns.

Respect the king.

N said...

Just who is us? Again, We're just scratching the surface here on identity and economic issues in America and abroad as represented through food, but I would argue that far less of America is represented by BK or McDs than you think.

And, contrary to my previous statement about Paula Deen, et. al, I've been thinking about this over the last few days, and I think we were to send food ambassadors abroad, there'd need to be a whole lot of burrito-makers and wonton wrappers on that train, too. And I'm not talking about the ethnic melting pot of people, I'm talking about the melting pot of food--I know lots of white people who'd take a taco al pastor over a Big Mac anyday, hands down. While McDs might be what people in the middle of the country have to live with, they do not make a majority.(Neither do us burrito-folk, but we're getting there.)

N said...

and I meant plane, not train, BTW

Anonymous said...

Everyone knows Burger King tastes like shit. I would eat day old ass before eating at BK. I feel sorry that these people had to eat a BK burger at all. The other burger they gave them must have been filled turd and broken glass for them to pick the BK burger.

Steve said...

Why didn't they show them vomiting or having diarrhea afterward?

Anonymous said...

To my mind the main problem with the burger as such is that it is not any of the things food, especially food being used as a countries de-facto ambassador, should be. It is not a delicacy, it is not something special and wonderful.

A fast food burger is rapid satisfaction. Immediately delivered comfort, and not much else. They can be pretty nice, and they can be bloody awful, but they are not made to be the best they can be. They are made to sell for 99 cents.

Having said that, some of the best and most cultural food omes from the poorest people, in those cases it is wonderful that such wonderful things are created with so little, but the burger fails here too. Nothing made from large cuts of farmed meat can really claim to be a dish of the people. Those who are really poor can not eat burgers from chain restaurants every day.

When I was last in America I had some ace burgers (veggie admittedly), some even better Mexican food, and a few random other things. None of them came from Mcdonalds or Burger King, and I, for one, am glad of that

andrew said...

Haters. Snobs.

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