Screenshot via Burger King Russia
Somehow companies keep doing this. They keep coming up with new and absurd ways to voluntarily walk directly into a field of rakes. It's amazing that an ad campaign that amounted to "let's bribe women to have sex with soccer stars for love of country with fast food burgers" actually went live, let alone got out of whatever conference room it was spawned in, but it's all very real.Burger King Russia issued an apology that felt kind of half-assed in the grand scheme of things:Burger King, within the framework of social responsibility, has appointed a reward for girls who get pregnant from the stars of world football. Each will receive 3 million rubles, and a lifelong supply of Whoppers. For these girls, it will be possible to get the best football genes, and will lay down the success of the Russian national team on several generations ahead. Forward! We believe in you!
Fox News reached out to Burger King and got the following response:We apologize for the statement we made. It turned out to be too insulting. We thank you for the feedback and hasten to inform you that we have already removed all materials related to the application.
This all isn't even to mention that, despite your kid having the "best football genes"—if that truly is the basis of Burger King Russia's insane plan—feeding your future soccer prodigy unlimited Whoppers isn't really going to take them to peak performance.We are sorry about the clearly offensive promotion that the team in Russia launched online. As soon as it was brought to our attention, we had it removed. It certainly does not reflect our brand or our values and we are taking steps to ensure this type of activity does not happen again.