It’s the first week of June, and brands are out here already doing the most for Pride month. Burger King Austria recently unveiled a ‘Pride whopper,’ which is just like a regular whopper with two top buns or two bottom buns, and the reactions have been a mix of confused, shocked, and absolutely horrified.
“Burger King Austria made a Pride burger that’s either two tops or two bottoms… what in straight hell?” Netflix’s Jarett Wieselman wrote on Twitter.
The fast food chain unveiled the meaty disaster on Instagram earlier this month, announcing that the burger will be available until June 20. The post received over 2,000 comments, with one Instagram user exclaiming, “holy shit, this ain’t it bro.”
Many other comments accused the brand of rainbow washing, when companies show support of the LGBTQ+ community in their ads, without actually contributing to the betterment of the community. Some Instagram users asked whether Burger King was planning on donating any of the profits from selling the top and bottom whoppers, to which Burger King Austria responded by saying, “We are official partners of Vienna Pride and support the LGBTQIA community.”
With a slogan that reads, “Time to be proud,” the odd-shaped, ally whopper has good intentions as it tries to promote “equal love and equal rights,” according to Burger King Austria’s Instagram account. But it completely misses the mark by forcing a sexual innuendo on a...burger.
“If they spent any time talking to the queer community Burger King would know the last thing they want is pairing a top with a top and a bottom with a bottom,” comic artist Erica Henderson wrote on Twitter.
Unfortunately, Burger King isn’t the only brand to unleash a tone deaf campaign during Pride month. Funny enough, there was another cringy sandwich to rival that of Burger King’s. In 2019, Marks and Spencer released a LGBT sandwich, of lettuce, guacamole, bacon and tomato (get it? Yeah, I wish I didn’t). Other brands take a less creative approach, and just don their products in the rainbow colors, or send out a vague “love is love” slogan.
The top and bottom whopper was a risk that perhaps didn’t pay off, and maybe brands are better off enforcing a more diverse workplace, and donating their heaps of profits rather than making a bread bun sex joke.