Burger King and the Suez Canal: Too Soon?
In light of the recent Suez canal crisis that blocked maritime traffic for almost a week, halting billions of dollars of goods globally, there was one fast food industry that wasted no time in taking advantage of the matter for their advertising needs. You may have seen the advertisement from Burger King, maybe even thought it was fake, but it was indeed a real ad that quite swiftly, rode the wave of the matter and ultimately, upset Egyptians. Thousands of retweets have erupted on the Internet with the hashtag #BoycottBurgerKing. The ad, created by Burger King in Chile, received applaud and laughter, as well as anger and disappointment.
Some social media users stated that this act only showed bad manners on behalf of the fast food company, while Fernando Machado, CEO of Burger King Global wrote on Twitter “Great post from Burger King Chile,” adding with it a laughing emoji. The original caption of the Burger King ad said “there’s no channel to interrupt it,” implying that their delivery services are never interrupted.
Mohamed Shalaan on Twitter reacted to this matter by saying, “A call to all Arab brothers from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman…a call to everyone who holds Egypt close or even a little love, boycott the Burger King chain.” Others have shared their anger and frustration too, and stated that for a company to poke fun at another nation’s breakdown in order to promote themselves, will ultimately only lead to respect towards their company to be lowered instead.
However, this isn’t the first time the fast food company has come under fire, as recently on International Women’s Day, Burger King UK had sent out a tweet that said “women belong in the kitchen.” Although the intended message was to imply that they support more female head chef roles, the tone was completely misunderstood on social media, and described as nothing short than tone deaf to many. Shortly after, the message was deleted.
