has been forced to apologize and withdraw the outdoor advertising campaign that announced its vegetable meat burgers in Seville during Easter after the protests raised on social networks by users who considered it offensive to Catholics.
The ads, which promoted a vegan hamburger and have become viral, achieving a great impact, used phrases from the Bible to build puns such as “Take and eat all of it. It does not have meat” or with posters where in the phrase “Meat of my meat” the word ‘meat’ appeared crossed out and accompanied by the correction of ‘vegetable’.
“The objective of the campaign”, they recalled yesterday from the company, “was to give visibility to Burger King’s vegetable products during Lent, a period in which some people choose not to eat meat. The creative route of the campaign has been unfortunate , but we assure you that in no case was anyone wanted to offend and that is why it has been rectified by making a public apology and withdrawing the campaign. Likewise, they clarify that the campaign was only activated in two municipalities and in outdoor advertising media and was withdrawn during the morning of this Monday.
apologies in networks
The company, managed in our country by Restaurant Brands Iberia (RBI), issued a statement on Twitter last Easter Sunday assuring: “We apologize to all those who have been offended by our campaign aimed at promoting our vegetable products at Easter Our intention has never been to offend anyone and the immediate withdrawal of the campaign has already been requested.” This social network concentrated the messages rejecting the chain’s initiative.
The controversial ads are part of a communication strategy designed by the Wavemaker agency and follow the line started with other campaigns such as ‘Meat? / Meat?’, created by another regular collaborator of Burger King, the firm David, focused on the confusion caused to the chain’s customers by the meat-like vegetable products that it sells in its restaurants.
Creatives
In its different creativities, the campaign apologizes to meat lovers for the variants made with vegetable protein of its most famous references such as the Whopper or the Long Chicken.
The brand’s commitment to products made with vegetable protein has been reflected in recent months in striking marketing initiatives such as the opening of the first totally vegan Burger King restaurant for a month in the center of Madrid. For the occasion, in addition to providing the premises with a green aesthetic that broke with the classic colors of the firm, the establishment only sold the vegetable variants of its hamburgers and companions.
Although very controversial, Burger King’s campaign is not the only one that has focused this year on playing with Catholic beliefs and meat consumption at Easter. The Catalan company specializing in plant-based meat, Heura Foods, has taken advantage of these same dates to launch a European campaign with posters and videos starring a nun who prays: “This Good Friday, eat meat.” Her message could be read in large capitals such as Rome, Paris or Milan, as well as Madrid and Barcelona.
The Spanish startup explained on social networks when launching its impressive campaign that its intention was to spread the mentality that traditions must be renewed with the idea that the excuse that things have always been one way does not prevent trying to do them better. . Hence his proposal to eat meat this Good Friday, but based on plants.
disparate reactions
The reactions to both campaigns, however, have not been the same, since the Catalan firm is much less well known than Burger King, despite being one of the pioneers in the marketing of vegetable meat in our country and having a presence with its products in more than 20 markets. On the contrary, the hamburger restaurants originating in Miami (Florida, USA), have been in our country for more than 40 years and had 584 restaurants at the end of last year.
Coinciding with this campaign, Heura also revealed last week that it was among almost 5,000 small investors through a crowdfunding campaign.
According to the CEO and co-founder of the company, Marc Coloma, the company has far exceeded its initial expectations, which were to capture one million euros, and will use these resources to move to a larger headquarters this year, without leaving Barcelona, in which to strengthen its innovation laboratory and become “a global benchmark for the protein transition and a leader in Europe”.