Burger King Angers Hindus With Its Whopper Ad

Burger King has angered Hindus around the world with an advertisement that puts a revered Indian goddess next to a big whopper, the Telegraph reports. The ad, which appeared in Spain, shows the goddess Lakshmi sitting above a beef burger.

The 'Texican Whopper' is an affront to Hindu sensitivities in its own right - it includes an all-beef patty, a beef chilli-con-carne slice, egg-based Cajun mayonnaise, all forbidden by strict Hindus. Some devotees would even be offended by the inclusion of onions which they believe inflame passions.

But it is the depiction of Lakshmi which has provoked widespread anger with its suggestion that a Hindu deity eats beef.

The Telegraph reports that Burger King withdrew the posters and apologized to the Hindu community.

Burger King issued the apology a day after the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) asked the company to remove the advertisement, Hindustan reports.

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Comments

[AbstractImp]

How dare old time religious insult western religion of money and marketing!

[JScott]

Who does BK's adverts they have made SOOO MMAANNNYYY blundeers.­...

That 'King' guy in your bed is just creepy and the 'Where's Herbie' campaign was just stupid and insulting.­...

And now this....

Always classy Burger King.

[RaWen]

Ugh... Is it just me or are the adverts for BK just getting worse

[email]

But India's Ieft think its perfectly fine.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/mellowdrama/entry/why_i_m_cool_with

[jebamoni4]

CAN ANYBODY EXPLAIN WHY HINDU GODESS KALI DEVI WEARING HUMAN SKULLS
AND STAMPING ON HUMAN BODY?

[RobinLandseadel]

Yeah, but then I'd have to kill you.

[SpinDown08]

Yes....i believe she is the destroyer of the world at the end of the Kali Yuga period. It's much like the apocalypse.

[listeningpost]

Read all about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali

[bismillah001]

Wow, pretty idiotic. I guess it only could have been worse if they had put Krishna on the poster, as he spent his childhood herding cows.

[ramashah]

Shows how Naive the advertisement department is.

[samuelberg]

I think they knew exactly what they were doing and its intended consequences. Spain is a hotbed of intolerance and I'm sure their local ad agency thought this would be no problem. That is unless the media transmitted the ad around the world.

[ramashah]

This is ridiculously offensive as a hindu person..

[dogman44]

LOL! The peple responsible for the ad couldn't have been more insulting if
they tried. "Please do not eat our Sacred Cow sir! It is, as you say, a Holy Cow."

[RightWingMarine]

now I have to make a second trip to BK to buy a burger. I hope they stop their offense ads soon, BK is out of the way and I still have to buy the dinner I'm going to eat. (I just buy the BK burger to support the company, I don't actually eat the thing.)

[1differentdrummer]

Stupid.

[Skepticat]

Community organizer Saul Alinski once said, "If I was was organizing a group of Hassidic Jews, I wouldn't walk into the meeting eating a ham sandwich." Apparently this common sense approach of not un-necessarily offending groups of people is not as widely known in advertising as previously thought.

[WisdomFirst]

Great quote, Skipticat. Also analogous to this Dead Animal on a Bun King story was when McCain, while on the campaign trail, JUST after announcing that he advocated cutting social security to seniors, was headed to Florida for some campaign stops. Not so smart. Schleimel or schlemazel? You decide.

[MajorKong]

So who's the advertising genius who thought this one up?

[lungfish]

There is a special place in hell for marketers, they know no limits, respect no boundaries­...

[DarkWitch]

Wow. Who was the genius who thought that one up, I wonder?

[Tom95134]

The guy knew what he was doing. He now works for McDonald's at double the salary.

[zizizzi]

LOL!