Creativity Has Two Sides — Burger King’s Pride Campaign

Burger King announced on Instagram that their Austrian restaurants will sell a “Pride Burger” with both top and bottom buns being the same by June 20 in order to endorse “equal love and equal rights.” The fast food company explained in the post that this “minor change” to the new burger intends to “bring happiness to us and remind us of our shared respect and peace.”

However, the campaign has sparked heated discussions instead of the positive reception it was intended to have. Some people on social media thought the new burger was amusing, but others slammed the company, calling the joke insulting and an instance of “rainbow washing” — when a business says they’re supportive of the LGBTQ+ community but doesn’t actually help improve their circumstances.

The end result was an apology from the president for the publicity.

Uncontrollable thoughts

The incident had a two-part effect on Burger King. On one hand, it brought in some new customers, but on the other, it also caused a loss of some regulars. By avoiding certain controversial topics, we can mitigate the risk of such incidents. Can this be prevented? I believe so.

When choosing topics, I think Burger King should avoid controversial content, such as the changes made to the sliced bread in this case. I don’t think it would have caused as much controversy this time without the sliced bread issue.

Who was the main cause of this incident? I don’t think it’s neither the brand nor the viewer, but the idea. The brand aimed to attract more customers with this topic, but it repeated the same error. Who does Burger King want to appeal to? For two years now, since 2021, Burger King has been targeting specific groups, as seen in 2021 when it highlighted the unhappy history of its rival, Chick-fil-A, with the LGBTQ+ community. The business will give 40 cents to the Human Rights Campaign, the U.S.’s biggest LGBTQ+ civil rights group, for each Ch’King chicken sandwich sold throughout Pride Month.

After the incident, Burger King apologized, however apologizing doesn’t solve the problem, but it is the only way. If Burger King doesn’t change this theme, subsequent issues like this will still keep coming up.