Burger King is a household name. The company is so large that every time it blinks, someone tweets about it. One day, headlines describe how Burger King is vowing to stop the use of antibiotics in chicken by 2018. The next day, though, they're slamming the chain, stating that fecal matter has been found in food there. One thing that we'd argue Burger King consistently does well, though, is television. Burger King commercials are, for lack of a better phrase, on-point. The chain's ad, though, is one that'll make you tear up.
The video is here. Watch it and interpret it in your own way. We'd be remiss, though, not to include the caption that they've put on this ad. The following says it better than we could ever paraphrase it.
Scrawny. Short. Ugly. Fat. Weird. 30% of school kids worldwide are bullied each year and bullying is the #1 act of violence against young people in America today (Source: nobully.org).
The BURGER KING® brand is known for putting the crown on everyone's head and allowing people to have it their way. Bullying is the exact opposite of that. So the BURGER KING® brand is speaking up against bullying during National Bullying Prevention Month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnKPEsbTo9s
Bullying is a sensitive subject to most, and this ad takes it on in head-to-head fashion. Similar to a hidden camera show, the ad shows bullying happen to two subjects and films the reactions of others. The first is a junior in high school. The second: a Whopper Jr.
The student gets ridiculed and has his meal ruined. People look toward the scene, but no one, at first, speaks up. Then, an employee (in admittedly humorous fashion) talks smack on a burger and hits it, ruining its integrity.
Nearly everyone complains about the bullied burger. The chain estimates that 95 percent of people complained about the burger.
All that said, the ad tells an important story. For change to happen, we all must speak up. You'd complain about your burger coming out mashed and battered, right? We should all do the same for someone who's getting bullied.
