Why I Left Advertising

Here's a prime example of the work that I find totally revolting in advertising. This is the new BurgerKing campaign (and i thought subservient chicken was bad enough!). BurgerKing's new Whopper Virgins (copyright if you please) has already generated a lot of controversy, online, only a few days after its release.
www.whoppervirgins.com
The Whopper Virgins experiment claims having conducted real ethnological-like surveys in countries of the world where hamburgers are (happily?) not a staple of the local diet. Thailand, Romania, Greenland and Iceland are taste-test-sites for your traditional BurgerKing vs MacDonalds competition. Oddly, in the BurgerKing-conducted-survey, BurgerKing wins. Whatever. A lot of money was spent on this "documentary", even enlisting the talents of Stacy Peralta (Sundance Award winner in documentaries) in an attempt to legitimize the findings.
All I can say is that I find the ad to be in very bad taste. (Pun intended).
There is something deeply disturbing about plastic food ("culinary culture" in the ad) seeking authenticity among the "more primitive", "purer" societies. There is something very colonial to ethnic groups being portrayed wearing traditional outfits. Something annoying about a documentary that claims to be real (no actors were used - making sure that the product standards "adhere to claim-substantiation rules"), but can't bother to get the names of the people they casually thank: The guy who lent his horse and carriage in Romania, the guy who gave Kevin a coat (no geographical referrent here altogether).
If one reads the comments of readers, I seem to be over-reacting. This ad is not offensive, on the contrary it's creative, I should chill, it's just about a burger. Sigh.


For more pro and con random ranting:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cathy-erway/burger-king-ads-underscor_b_150021.html
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/12/09/whopper-virgins-ads-and-controversy-break/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2008/dec/04/advertising-food
http://adage.com/article?article_id=132979