Burger King has issued a public apology for an ad run by its New Zealand franchise, which showed customers struggling to eat burgers with giant chopsticks.
The ad was run to promote the restaurant’s new “Vietnamese Sweet Chili Tendercrisp Burger.” In addition to the chopsticks, the ad told potential customers to “Take your taste buds all the way to Ho Chi Minh City.”
According to the Hill:
In a statement to CNN on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the burger chain apologized for the ad and said the franchise in New Zealand was asked to remove it immediately.
‘The ad in question is insensitive and does not reflect our brand values regarding diversity and inclusion,’ the spokeswoman said.
Tweets containing the original ad have been posted nearly three million times online. The “insensitive” ad poses a particular problem for Burger King, due to the fact that the restaurant chain has recently added 100 new locations in China.
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