#143 Burger King gone too far in a far-away market
The 2018 Soccer World Cup will still be going on for a few weeks, and yet there’s already a big loser – Burger King. The global fast food giant just had to withdraw a recent campaign on the Russian VK social media network. In the campaign, Burger King had offered a cash prize of 3 million Russian Rubles (approximately US$ 47,000) along with a life-time supply of its signature Whopper sandwich. Quite normal, right? Almost unimaginative. Well, the problem was that it wasn’t just a lucky draw. There was a little condition attached to the prize – it was for women who managed to get impregnated by Russian soccer players so that Russia could “make sure that the best soccer genes will proliferate and guarantee the success of Russian soccer for generations to come…!” After pressure from women’s advocate groups and social media users, the promotional post was quickly removed from the Burger King VK account, and the company issued an apology instead: “We offer apologies for the announcement we made. It was too offensive. We are taking steps to ensure this type of activity does not happen again.” Hard to unring the bell, especially for a company that had come under fire for its offensive ads before: In early 2017, it came out with an advertisement for a buy one, get one free offer featuring the image of Diana Shurygina, a 17-year-old girl who had been raped and beaten in a case that drew widespread public attention. I wonder, who signs off on these campaigns at Burger King?
July 2, 2018 @ 11:28 am
I even can´t imagine who signs off on these campaigns at Burger King. Even though this campaign concerns only Russia, it would be forbidden in any other country. In my opinion, it is crucial to screen potential campaigns with various audiences before implementing them to the publicity. Burger King would have saved a lot of problems and costs if they considered requirements and regulations of each country. The learning for Burger King is that future campaigns should be tested with focus groups from a range of social and cultural backgrounds. And I think, they should talk to locals how things are done.
July 2, 2018 @ 11:35 am
I even can´t imagine who signs off on these campaigns at Burger King. Even though this campaign concerns only Russia, it would be forbidden in any other country. In my opinion, it is crucial to screen potential campaigns with various audiences before implementing them to the publicity. Burger King would have saved a lot of problems and costs if they considered requirements and regulations of each country. The learning for Burger King is that future campaigns should be tested with focus groups from a range of social and cultural backgrounds. And I think, they should talk to locals how things are done.
July 13, 2018 @ 5:46 pm
I am not sure, if the target from Burger King was to gain with all funds awareness for the new Whopper sandwich or prevent woman from an unlucky relationship. The intention to keep soccer’s success for the future is real nice. For me it shows there were not the most intelligent people at work, because the suggested prize of 3 million Russian Rubles was combined with a condition under the trousers belt. As always, it was not the first misstep to launch with a tricky campaign something new. Anyway, the received negative content does not improve the products from Burger King on a sustainable way. Erich from Austria stay tuned!
July 14, 2018 @ 1:33 pm
We all know that Burger King often advertises in curious ways and comes under fire because of it. Burger King really committed a blunder with this advertisement.
In my opinion the only thing they wanted to achieve with its advertisements is to raise awareness for the company. After starting the campaign people began to discuss and talk about it. Because of that the campaign became viral and that makes publicity for the company, even though it is a bad one, the company is in the mind of the people. Although the advertisement is not online anymore and Burger King had apologized, everyone knows about what they did.
July 15, 2018 @ 10:30 am
In my opinion the campaign of Burger King is a scandal. If they would have had experienced people in the field of Marketing, such things would never happen. Also, I am wondering how this campaign was even allowed. Maybe the competition law is not that strict in Russia, but in other countries this campaign would have been punished. Burger King made a very dangerous campaign and will have some image problems in the future now. They were just lucky, that they removed the announcement so quickly and no women got really pregnant. If so, Burger King would be in a massive criticism. For future campaign they need to be very careful what they are doing and should probably look for better qualified personnel for there Marketing.
July 16, 2018 @ 9:29 pm
How desperatly must a company grasping for media attention if they actually opt for a PR idea like this? It seems as if the only goal for the PR department was to target the (most of the time) brilliantly orchestrated press campaigns of their biggest competitor McDonalds in a single kamikaze-attack. I do not think however that this stunt was worth the risk. I rather believe that this campaign did more harm to the company’s reputation in Central Europe than it actually helped them fixing market shares.
September 27, 2018 @ 3:00 am
I am actually horrified. Not only should the marketing team be removed, but the senior executives should be as well. First of all, wasn’t anyone paying attention to what was happening in Russia? Several Russian athletes had been banned from the Winter Games in Pyeongchang for “doping” and many others had to compete as a team called “Olympic Athletes from Russia.” They were not allowed to march into the opening and closing ceremonies behind the Russian flag. The athletes who were actually abusing drugs embarrassed their country and the athletes who had never used drugs paid the price. For Burger King to offer prize money (and free whoppers) to women who could become pregnant by Russian soccer players so that Russia could “make sure that the best soccer genes will proliferate and guarantee the success of Russian soccer for generations to come” is rubbing salt in open wounds when it comes to Russian athletes and is insinuating that Russian women must in some way “manage to get impregnated by Russian soccer players”. No wonder the women’s advocate groups were so upset. Women globally should have been upset. I would like to know who they thought their target market was with this advertising and how they weighed the risks vs benefits of this advertising campaign? Not only did Burger King miss the mark completely, they showed their cultural insensitivity by insulting athletes, women and the Russian people in general.
February 6, 2019 @ 7:56 pm
A lack of organizational research into the culture, image, and focus of these types of campaigns can really bring down an organization’s reputation. Leadership must be aware of these issues and act swiftly and decisively to address them BEFORE word gets out.
March 19, 2019 @ 10:28 pm
I can’t imagine who would sign off on a campaign like this. Whoever it is needs to be fired and removed from the company all together. I don’t understand why Burger King hasn’t taken further action with this and tried to make a sincere statement and apology. The statement presented seemed forced, not thought through, and insensitive, just like the campaign was. It almost makes me think it was a hacked advertisement. Somebody out to try and be “funny”/hurtful. It will be interesting to follow sales and revenue for Burger King over the next couple years to see if anything drops due to reputation and disrespect. Something similar happened with Jimmy Johns (a US sandwich shop) and they suffered greatly.
April 7, 2019 @ 11:30 pm
Wow! I’ve heard of companies releasing some inconsiderate marketing campaigns before, but this is definitely not what I expected as I read through this entire post. On another post I mentioned the time H&M got it’s hand-slapped for releasing an image that was understandably received as racist. However, I think that a lot of these images, campaigns, etc. that end up under fire are really honest mistakes and didn’t have the intention of being offensive. These two ads with Burger King literally blow my mind that they were not only thought of in the first place, but were actually released to the public. These were blatantly meant to cause a reaction, and I get that sometimes you need to get people’s attention, but there are definitely better ways to go about that. Especially considering both the two controversial posts were directed at women too, I’d be surprised if they didn’t lose a good amount of customers because of these ads. As the writer of this post says, who signed off on these is the real question.
April 30, 2019 @ 2:55 am
This Burger King campaign is profoundly tone deaf in a way that feels deliberate. The lack of sensitivity towards women and the audacity to attach a cash prize to anyone who became pregnant speaks to a level of misogyny in the organization that is shocking across cultures and international borders. Burger King could not even defend the act as a joke that could be said to be strictly cultural and something only meant for Russians. I am not an expert in Russian culture but offering hamburgers and money to women feels inappropriate regardless of culture. I was shocked further when I was compelled to search the ad mentioned portraying a caricature of Diana Shurygina. The likeness is unbelievable even if it is a very stylized cartoon version. Burger King Russia has a problem in its leadership and those decisions are having a negative impact on their operations overseas. Culture dictates norms and taboos, the negative international press surrounding both these insensitive ads shows little tolerance in this case. Burger King is failing to learn from past mistakes and failing to incorporate feedback from previous experience. Not to excuse Burger King in any way, I can see how it may be difficult to build a cohesive corporate memory to avoid past mistakes and learn from history, especially for an organization operating multiple international operations.
February 1, 2022 @ 12:44 am
After reading how Burger King signed off on marketing campaigns such as giving prizes for women who managed to bear a child with Russian soccer pros or advertising discounts on meals with an image of a 17-year-old girl known to the public as a rape victim, I point my finger to poor leadership. To turn things around, the company should follow the example of South Africa’s ex-president, Nelson Mandela. At the time, Mandela was trying to unite the country’s “ruling whites” and “oppressed blacks” after the abolishment of the apartheid system. To do this, he led by example, employing cabinet members on each side of the conflict. Regardless of the side chosen, members must work together, get to know one another, and use each other’s diverse viewpoints to find the appropriate solution to unite the country. For South Africa, the uniting factor was the sport of Rugby. In the same way he united his cabinet, he used South Africa’s title chances to unite a divided country. In order to ensure success, he was hands-on with the media, the players, and community surrounding the team as well. Overall, when South Africa won, Mandela exemplified how a strong, team-oriented leadership style can help a country come back from a past of poor leadership. In the same way, CEOs attempting internationalization can follow Mandela’s hands-on and lead-by-example leadership style to reconcile relationships between companies and countries and in this case, between Russia and Burger King.
February 16, 2022 @ 4:16 am
It is important for companies to think about the content of advertisements. Promotions, especially at the World Cup, are very costly to do just that. The content of the promotion that costs that much comes with great responsibility. What is required of this promotion is shock, humor and topicality that everyone can remember. However, since it is information that is sent to many people at the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to sensitive issues. In this case, it may be said that the team responsible for the promotion lacked diversity. It is probable that they were unaware of how their message would be perceived by women. Or it could have been a strategy that included this uproar. Although it is a negative image, this news had a big impact on those who heard it and became a hot topic. It has made some progress in spreading the Burger King name to people.