It's been Burger King's Modus operandi the past five years to make commercials that are -- for lack of a better term -- weird. While this plan started off with a bang and one of the first viral videos of the Web, lately it's been leading to more and more forgettable commercials (and even a video game) featuring The King.
Now, though, Burger King may have veered from the weird into the just-plain-wrong with Whopper Virgins.
The gist of Whopper Virgins is this: The only people who are
unbiased enough to give a true opinion of whether the Whopper or Big
Mac is better are people who've never tasted either -- specifically peasants from second- and third-world countries. So Burger King flew to places like
Romania, Greenland and Thailand to get these people's opinions.
On
paper it doesn't sound that bad though a little misguided (would you
have people who've never drunk wine judge a wine competition? So why
not pick burger experts to judge instead of novices?) and something out
of the Hardee's handbook. The controversy concerns the way Burger King is portraying the peasants.
While
Burger King isn't releasing the actual documentary until Monday, it seems the company isn't going to hold back when it comes to cultural
stereotypes. That picture above is of a Romanian peasant, though it
could be right of Hollywood casting. Peopole are already wondering just how real these taste-testers are.
The entire thing reeks
of Burger King's advertising agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, trying to
push the envelope to stir up attention. Like the
desperate-for-attention kid in class, it's funny for a little while but
now Burger King ads are just getting more and more annoying. CP + B has
not made themselves many friends with the account either and if you get
a few drinks into some people who work at local digital ad agency VML
-- which held the digital business until March of this year -- they
have a different story to tell about Subservient Chicken being all
Crispin Porter's success. — Owen Morris
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I'm from Romania and I find this campaign misleading. At one point they imply that they don't even know how to eat the burger, and show the romanian woman kinda confused, thinking about how to eat it. She's acting like this because this is supposed to be a formal tasting, and she's expecting to have to eat it in a more formal way (with a knife and a fork). The translator then says "just use your hands" at which point she looks relieved and grabs it like you would any sandwich (albeit perhaps with a bit of stage fright). And while it's true that BK only recently came to Romania (so most of us are Whopper Virgins), we have had McDonalds for quite a few years now. Oh, and from my experience, the peasants that make it to the big cities go for KFC anyway :P. But, despite this campaign, I'm sure BK will have huge success here, since we love eating fast-food, and we love trying new things.
I'm from Romania and I find this campaign misleading. At one point they imply that they don't even know how to eat the burger, and show the romanian woman kinda confused, thiunking about how to eat it. She's acting like this because this is supposed to be a formal tasting, and she's expecting to have to eat it in a more formal way (with a knife and a fork). The translator then says "just use your hands" at which point she looks relieved and grabs it like you would any sandwich (albeit perhaps with a bit of stage fright). And while it's true that BK only recently came to Romania (so most of us are Whopper Virgins), we have had McDonalds for quite a few years now. Oh, and from my experience, the peasants that make it to the big cities go for KFC anyway :P. But, despite this campaign, I'm sure BK will have huge success here, since we love eating fast-food, and we love trying new things.
Another idiotic, even bizarre piece of BK advertising:
Not normally a BK customer, just drove through to get a soda; on the side of the cup:
"Science hasn't proven it yet, but we're pretty sure your cup tries to communicate with you. Like by using that sound created while sucking through a straw at the bottom of any empty drink. It's called Cup Chatter. And it's your cup's way of telling you to get a refill. So the next time you hear it, listen up and top that puppy off. Because it's good to have it filled to the edge. it shows you're really having it your way".
There�s a funny blog on freedomhaters.org on the Whopper Virgins commercial.
It ties it into Noam Chomsky and how the indigenous people on the commercials will most likely be forced to move to big cities when the fast food chains move in, and have to work for Burger King for a tenth of what American�s make.
Check it out here:
http://freedomhaters.org/conte...
This is plain "BS". Romania might not best country in the world, and it might have been pretty bad during the communist time, but it is way different now. I do not know if they have to ask for certain rights for mentioning the country's name, but these ads are just wrong. I am sure there is a fat/rich guy drinking beer in the Bahamas from the money he made from letting them project this image of Romania. Even though many people are offended by it, no does something about it; what can we do? I think this should be a matter of bigger importance to a national level, and not just an internet debate. We vote for a government to represent us and this is what we get. There are so many people that have business connected to tourism; all the international affairs are affected by this, made not too much, but it got to be a habit. First the Borat Movie, then Folger, now Burger King. What comes next? Romanians are spread all over the world, but pride can their be in telling people where you are from, when they see poverty and lack of knowledge in these ads. The problem is not in shooting ads in Romania, or have showing the conditions of the places there, it is more of projecting the right idea. They can make whatever they want to with the ad, they could have made it look good and everyone would have been happy, but now they risk having a lot of criticism. Maybe it does not affect the people Romanian people that do not travel outside the country, but it sure has an impact on the people that live outside. I, myself, live in the US, and I had people come up to me and ask me what the country is like. All they know about it is the poverty, and that we have many orphans. As the Orphan's Agencies do a good job finding international support, they enhance the bad image of Romania. I am not saying that they should stop doing that or that it is wrong, my point is that we need other agencies in any domain to enhance the good things in Romania. That way there would be a balance.
Is the agency really called Bogusky, or am I just incredibly gullible?
Anyway, they're offensive on several levels:
http://kushibo.blogspot.com/20...
Hi.
You should check the Romanian blogosphere and you will see a lot of persons disgusted by BKs action. Some persons found out this was a terribly false campaign, filmed in a different location than the one they presented, with costumes from other area of the country and some other "small" details. I hope they will not use stereotypes from now on. They won't penetrate (pun intended) the Romanian market with this type of advertising.
Btw, is the hamburger a "traditional" American food?:)
I think they're trying to push the idea that good food is good anywhere. The group from Thailand is a tribal people called the Hmong. That's my culture-background as well. It seemed pretty real to me. They definitely weren't Hollywood at all.
I would have to also question the idea about introducing the western diet which is crap to people that probably eat a lot healthier than us. With their aboriginal diets, there could be major health consequences.
I don't understand. You haven't made a case for why the Whopper Virgin promotion is wrong or pushing the envelope.
Is it stereotypes? You haven't established that any stereotypes were embraced by BK. In fact, you only can only assert that Burger King "isn't going to hold back when it comes to cultural stereotypes" because the picture of the Romanian woman, whom you call "a peasant," looks like she came straight out of Hollywood. Isn't that assertion a little culturally insensitive?
Do you feel that the indigenous people were being taken advantage of? You didn't make that case either.
Lastly, have you worked at VML?
Taking our crappy fast food to people that should never be subjected to it is despicable.
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