Burger King "apologized for a poor-taste ad campaign" posted on its official Russian social media account, according to Arwa Mahdawi of the London GUARDIAN. On Tuesday, the burger chain announced a promotion on VK, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, offering women 3M rubles ($47,000) and a lifetime supply of Whoppers "if they get impregnated by football players competing in the World Cup." Shortly after announcing the campaign, Burger King "pulled it due to backlash." The chain posted a statement on VK apologizing and said that it "removed all materials related to the promotion." However, "evidence of the stunt lives on in screenshots." Burger King’s Russia division "has a history of horrific publicity-baiting stunts." Last year, it "made fun of a teenage rape victim" in an online marketing campaign (GUARDIAN, 6/20). The BBC reported the promotion "caused public outrage" in Russia. One feminist community on messaging app Telegram said, "This is a direct reflection of the level our society is at towards women." In advertising and in the media, "Russian women are being portrayed as sexual predators hunting their prey." Articles in the pro-Kremlin media describe the way they "bait foreign fans" and "chat them up." This kind of rhetoric "is hardly new in post-communist Russia," where feminist voices are rarely heard. Gender-role debates "get short shrift" on Russian TV, and if programs come across "anything remotely feminist, it is often dismissed as Western propaganda" trying to undermine Russian traditional values (BBC, 6/20).
'CLEARLY OFFENSIVE': USA TODAY's Martin Rogers reported in a statement released on Thursday, Burger King's media relations department at its U.S. HQ apologized for "the clearly offensive promotion" that the team in Russia launched online. The statement said, "As soon as it was brought to our attention, we had it removed. It certainly does not reflect our brand or our values and we are taking steps to ensure this type of activity does not happen again." Russian political leaders criticized the Burger King campaign as "crass and inappropriate." Russian State Duma leader Vitaly Milonov said, "It is a very stupid campaign … from the hellish people of the fast-food chain. (They are) trying to attract attention, not by improving the quality, but through silly offers." Ksenia Fadeeva, 19, a student from Moscow, said that Russian women "are accustomed to such sexist advertisements." She said, "It is normal for us. It is pathetic, but companies know they can appeal to the basic instincts of Russian men in this way" (USA TODAY, 6/21).
