A blonde
white woman with perfect complexion and cherry red lips stares ahead,
mouth ajar and eyebrows heightened. A seven inch slab of “something
long” and “juicy (Image)” lingers close to her mouth. The
slogan, “It'll Blow Your Mind Away (Image)”, is printed in bold
beneath. What I'm describing is not an advertisement for a
distributor of pornography, but an ad for one of the most popular
fast food restaurants in the world, Burger King. An ad that
was blasted by nearly everyone, going under scrutiny on June 24th,
2009. “Just when you thought the vulgarization of culture that is
now worldwide due to the unifying influence of cable, the Internet
and You Tube can’t get any more vulgar, Burger King proves
you wrong with news of its new advertising campaign for its “Super
Seven Incher Sandwich” that’s fun for journalists to report on,
will get lots of buzz but would hurt the company if it was unveiled
even five years ago (Gandelman).” If this kind of thing isn't
acceptable in today's world, why does it exist? Who's to blame for an
unpopular ad campaign hitting both the public and the reputation of
BK?
Could it
have been the times? It was 2008, the recession hit, and Burger
King's ad campaign had just surpassed Wendy's, but wasn't
nearly as close to McDonalds as execs had hoped for (Mullman).
Just a couple days before the outrage, Jeremy Mullman of Ad Age
vividly described the state of affairs between Crispin Porter and BK,
their ad runner at the time. “There was no shortage of material. In
five years, Crispin's creativity had energized a once-moribund brand
with memorable, often groundbreaking work that helped BK
recapture the No. 2 spot among burger chains briefly ceded to Wendy's
(Mullman).” But times had hit Burger King
much harder than McDonalds.
“Eyeing higher profit margins, BK
focused its marketing guns on more expensive items targeted to
so-called super fans, young men who theoretically care more about how
"Meat'Normous" a burger is than how much it costs and who
tend to be the most vociferous fast-food consumers. A smart strategy
-- until BK got caught
flat-footed by a recession that played to McDonald's
sweet spot: the value proposition it clearly owned and had honed over
decades (Mullman).” You could say that BK
was desperate for an ad that caught the public once more, so Porter
came up with a ludicrous poster. Except in the days following the
criticisms, Burger King
had stated that “It was produced by a locally-based Singapore
agency and not by BKC's U.S. advertising agency of record, Crispin
Porter and Bogusky (Gandelman).” All of this blame was shifted from
the close relationship between BK
and Porter, who just a year ago the event celebrated their
“...surprise fifth-anniversary party at Miami's Globe restaurant
last June thrown by Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Burger King Chief
Marketing Officer Russ Klein (Mullman),” to an unnamed advertising
agency in Singapore. By the time of the statement, people already had
some fingers pointed. One of them was at the model herself.
A
YouTuber named RV Wonderspunk has decided to start trending certain
phrases around the internet, beginning August 5th,
2014. Two of them were “#FaceRape” and “#BoyCottBK” (“Burger
King”). She is the model who
became the icon of advertising scandal in 2009, and her video has
been watched over 340,000 times (“Burger King”).
She elaborates on her snappy-cut video in the description on what
happened to her. “Burger
King
found my photo online from a series I did of various facial
expressions and contortion poses, and with no due regard to me as a
person, profited off reducing me to an orifice for their penis
sludge; publicly humiliating me in the process... Now due to the
coverage its received (Time
Magazine's Top Ten Tasteless Ads, Business
Insider,
Buzzfeed, Gawker, Psychology
Today
to name a few) it's part of the public domain. Just recently it was
the topic of discussion in a media studies class of 500 students at
the University of Toronto - where I live... and posted to the class
Facebook discussion page... There is something VERY wrong with the
fact that they felt entitled to do that to my face without signing a
contract with me (“Burger
King”).”
This video followed up with a response from Burger
King,
stating that “Respect for customers and employees is a top priority
at Burger King restaurants around the world... This ad was not
released in any other markets (Sanghani).” She appears to be more
victimized than anybody in this situation.
So
who's at fault? How did an ad like this come out to shock the liberal
community in the summer of 2009? The answer is, 'who cares?'
Honestly, it seems like nobody cares that much to take action against
the advertising firm in Singapore, blame the model for posing in
sensual positions, or fight BK
about
the carelessness they took with their ads across seas. Even if there
is a clear culprit, still roaming free five years from then, would
anyone actually go out of their way to prevent another awkward and
creepy ad from surfacing online? People like to act liberal and
feminist online, citing fair treatment for everyone, but hardly
anyone of us is truly unbiased to each other. Could it be that it's
trendy to be nice? Could it be that it's fun to rile people up? Could
it be that BK
wanted
this scandal for people to focus on how they'll become a more caring
and socially acceptable company? Whatever answer you choose, act like
you give a damn about it. I don't mean paste it on your Facebook as
“things you dislike,” really do something about it. Try to fix
the world around you because you're a part of it. You could write to
your representatives, begin a campaign, accept this poster as freedom
of speech-- just start participating and stop pointing your cameras
at everything awful, wishing somebody would do something.
References
Sanghani,
Radhika. "'Burger King Raped My Face', Claims Model on Angry
YouTube Video." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 7
Aug. 2014. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11018413/Burger-King-raped-my-face-claims-model-on-angry-YouTube-video.html>.
Gandelman,
Joe. "Burger King’s New Ad: A New Low In Vulgar Ads Aimed At
Young Customers (UPDATED)." The Moderate Voice. 24 June
2009. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
<http://themoderatevoice.com/36686/burger-kings-new-ad-a-new-low-in-vulgar-ads-aimed-at-young-customers/>.
Mullman,
Jeremy. "Fast Food: Crispin's BK Work Doesn't Help Gain On
McD's." Advertising Age News RSS. 22 June 2009. Web. 8
Dec. 2014.
<http://adage.com/article/news/fast-food-crispin-s-bk-work-gain-mcd-s/137472/>.
"Burger
King Digitally-Raped My Face." YouTube. YouTube, 5 Aug.
2014. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7pnGJHGn-M>.
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