Burger King

About

Burger King is a global hamburger fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is currently owned by "3G Capital" of Brazil, whom bought ownership to the franchise in 2010.^[1] The franchise slogan currently reads, "Have it your way!"

History

In 1953, Keith J. Kramer and Matthew Burns opened a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain named "Insta-Burger King." In 1954, financial problems forced Kramer and Burns to hand the franchise over to David Edgerton and James McLamore. The two later renamed the restaurant chain to simply "Burger King" after the company once again faltered in 1959. Burger King was the second largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants in terms of global locations, behind industry bellwether McDonald's (32,400 locations). It is also the fourth largest restaurant chain overall to "Yum! Brands", parent of KFC, "Taco Bell", and "Pizza Hut", McDonald's, and Subway.^[2]

Notable Developments

Halloween Whopper

On September 28th 2015, Burger King released the A.1. Halloween Whopper nationwide in America.^[13] The Whopper was distinctive because of the black shade of its bun, and the use of A..1 Steak Sauce instead of the traditional Burger King Special Sauce, and was modeled after a similar black Whopper that had been previously released in Japan, which was colored with bamboo charcoal. The United States version would not contain charcoal, but instead the flavoring of the steak sauce and "less than 1% food dye."^[5]

Online Reaction

On September 28th, commenters on fast food news sites began reporting their reactions via comments and Tweets. That day, on market publication The Impulsive Buy an anonymous commenter said "I had one last might also. It had bacon on it and now I’m disappointed to find out that’s not the standard. It was delicious. The bun is flavored with A 1 so that’s at least where some of its color comes from. Your poop will be as green as a crayon too. So it probably has blue die in it too."^[6] Several commenters responded to debate the types of dye which would create the effect in the stool.

On October 2nd, the website Mass Live published an expose by writer Nick O'Malley where he described finding out about these effects after he'd eaten the burger.^[7]

Soon after, the green aftereffects of the burger were being described nationwide by users on Twitter and publications like The Huffington Post,^[8] Uproxx,^[9] and Gawker.^[10] The hashtag #greenpoop was used almost 1,000 times between October 2nd and October 6th, 2015, and the words "green poop" were tweeted over 5,000 more times, often with pictures of the stool in question attached.^[11][12] Burger King did not respond to official requests for information.

Russian Burger King's "Pregnant By World Cup Player" Campaign

On June 19th, the Russian branch of Burger King ran a promotion offering money and free Whoppers for life to any Russian woman who got pregnant from a World Cup player. The ad said "Women who manage to get the best football genes will promote the Russian team's success for generations to come."

The promotion was quickly taken down after backlash. “We apologize for our statement. It turned out to be too insulting,” the branch said.^[16] The BBC^[17] noted that the promotion fit into Russian attitudes towards women during the World Cup, noting several articles that portrayed Russian women as "vamps" trying to sleep with foreign soccer fans. American reactions to the news were covered by Twitter Moments.^[18]

"Women Belong in the Kitchen" Tweet

On March 8th, 2021, International Women's Day, Burger King UK's official Twitter^[16][20] account @BurgerKingUK made a series of tweets about promoting its employees. The first tweet in the thread (shown below, top) said "women belong in the kitchen," a statement associated with misogynistic views.

Within six hours of the original tweet being posted, it received over 155,000 retweets and quote tweets, while the follow-up tweet providing context for the bait received only 8,300 shares.^[21]

The viral spread of the tweet was followed by an influx of online criticism towards Burger King, with users accusing the fast food restaurant chain for sending the wrong message and poor choice of marketing tactics.^[22][23]

Later on March 8th, Burger King UK apologized and deleted the tweets.^[24]

Related Memes

"Ding, Fries Are Done!"

Ding, Fries Are Done is a parody music video based on the Christmas carol song Carol of the Bells, sung by a mysterious singer only known as “Billy.” The parodied lyrics details an average work shift at a local fast food branch, like making french fries and rocking the paper hats at Burger King.

The Burger King

The Burger King is the advertising mascot for the international fast-food chain Burger King. After appearing in several television commercials, he was used in a variety of YTMNDs, video remixes and image macros often paired with the caption “where is your God now?”

Ronald McDonald vs. The Burger King

Ronald McDonald VS. The Burger King is a hypothetical conflict between Ronald McDonald and The Burger King, the mascots of American fast food chains McDonald's and Burger King. The conflict first appeared in a comic book in the late ’70s, and gained a following online through YTMND.

X Works at Burger King

X Works at Burger King is a series of YouTube parody videos referencing a stand-up comedy skit performed by Dane Cook who shares his experience while he had worked at Burger King, claiming he had his first job there and having notable struggles, such as someone yelling their order into Cook's headset.^[3]

Sitting In Line for Burger King

Sitting in line for Burger King is an image photoshopping with the original image depicting a woman sitting in a chair while in line for Burger King. Originally launched and popularized on failblog.org, 4chan started to grab hold of the fad and made a template for it as well.^[4]

Google Home Prank

On April 12th, 2017, Burger King uploaded an advertisement to YouTube in which a spokesperson intentionally tries to utilize the voice activation feature on Google Home, a product similar to Amazon's Alexa, by asking "Okay Google, what is a Whopper burger?"

The tactic is an attempt to make Google Home read the definition of a Whopper from Wikipedia, whose page appears to have been changed to sound like an advertisement for Burger King:

“The Whopper is a burger, consisting of a flame-grilled patty made with 100 percent beef with no preservatives or fillers, topped with sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, and mayonnaise, served on a sesame-seed bun.

According to The Verge,^[14] the edit was almost certainly the work of Burger King's marketing team. Google quickly stopped the Google Home from responding to the ad, however, two hours after it hit the airwaves.^[15]

Search Interest

External References