“Take all of you and eat of it,” wrote one ad. “Which doesn’t have meat. 100% vegetarian. 100% flavor. Big King Vegetable.” Another ad read, “Flesh of my flesh,” with the word “flesh” crossed out and replaced with “vegetable.” In Spain, the word “flesh” is synonymous with “meat.”
Burger King, which is headquartered in Miami, Florida, chose to run an advertisement campaign in Spain in which they used a spoof of the Eucharist to sell their vegetarian products, like the “Impossible Whopper”.
Burger King was hoping to draw attention from Catholics who do not eat red meat on Fridays during lent, but came under fire when the hashtag #BoicotBurgerKing began trending on Twitter in Spain, where over 60% of the population is Catholic.
In response to the advertisement, one individual, Miguel Tomás, started an online petition to “Sign and tell the CEO of Burger King that if the general director of Spain and Portugal, Jorge Carvalho, is not fired for taking out this ad, you will never set foot in any of his restaurants with your family.”
Tomás condemned Burger King for what he says is a mockery of the Eucharist and the death of Christ in the “most sacred time for Christians,” while others took to the hashtag #BoicotBurgerKing on Twitter to express their contempt for the ad.
Spanish lawyer and politician Jorge Buxadé posted a photo of the advertisement to Twitter with a caption condemning the post, writing “I don’t like to see the logos of multinationals frivolously disparaging our faith and the traditions of thousands of Spaniards.”
Some Catholic individuals on social media also pointed out the double standard of what they view as a mistreatment of their religion, suggesting that Burger King and similar companies wouldn’t launch such a campaign spoofing the Jewish Passover or Islam’s month of Ramadan to sell fast food.
In response to the backlash, Burger King took to Twitter to apologize for the campaign. “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,” the company tweeted in Spanish.
As of Wednesday, the petition created by Tomás had garnered 30,762 signatures. “Money is the only thing these companies understand and only with a boycott will they begin to respect Christians and Jesus Christ as they deserve,” wrote Tomás, who created the petition on Easter Sunday.