Burger King Ad Offends Hindus

Another week, another Burger King advertising scandal. A Spanish advertising company slapped together a series of posters featuring the Hindu goddess Lakshmi hovering over various BK foods with a slogan that translates to "This snack is sacred." Spain does not have an especially large Hindu population, but if BK put a...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

July 9, 2009

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Another week, another Burger King advertising scandal. A Spanish advertising company slapped together a series of posters featuring the Hindu goddess Lakshmi hovering over various BK foods with a slogan that translates to "This snack is sacred."

Spain does not have an especially large Hindu population, but if BK put a picture of Christ holding a whopper with the phrase "Jesus died for your sins, so indulge," in downtown Mumbai, a large number of Americans would be pretty outraged. There's also the matter that many BK products are made out of cow, an animal sacred to Hindus.

The restaurant chain has since apologized.

"We are apologizing because it wasn't our intent to offend anyone," said spokeswoman Denise T. Wilson. "Burger King Corporation values and respects all of its guests as well as the communities we serve. This in-store advertisement was running to support only local promotion for three restaurants in Spain and was not intended to offend anyone."

[Telegraph: Burger King apology to Hindus for advert]

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