Burger King exploits indigenous people for taste test experiment and calls it a “film”.

I hate that I’m contributing to the viral nature of something Burger King is praying will go viral, but I wanted others to see this and maybe have a conversation about it.

I wish I could repost the thoughts of the person who brought it to my attention, and I’d link you, but it was a friends only post on Live Journal. Essentially his point was that Burger King was exploiting these people and that they were douche-nozzles for introducing fast food into their otherwise natural diets which, for the most part, have remained unchanged for a long effing time. Basically, Burger King was a bunch of assholes for giving these people the inevitable shits that even we, who are used to this kind of food, are prone to get after ingesting it.

Imagine the consequence of a Whopper AND a Big Mac on the delicate digestive systems of these people? That’s just evil!

And let’s be clear here. What I linked above is NOT a film, it’s an advertisement. Burger King is counting on people to talk about this, good or bad, in the hopes it going viral and ultimately selling more product. Burger King looooves viral internet advertising. Maybe you’ll recall their Subservient Chicken of 2004. This is just another attempt and it’s probably going to work.

On one hand, the concept IS pretty interesting, but at the same time, I can’t help but feel that these people were being totally exploited, both by introducing fast food crap that we all know is bad for us into their culture and for using them in a sneaky form of advertising that they’d never see, probably wouldn’t understand if it was explained to them and was likely misleading in nature.

This wasn’t an exploration in anything, this was a stunt. If it were a true exploration in the form of documentary, as I’m pretty sure they want everyone to believe, we would have heard more from those “no preference” people, who I’m thinking probably thought both burgers were equally repulsive.

Also, you and I as North American consumers of fast food (well, most of you) know the gastro-intestinal repercussions of eating such foods and our systems are USED TO IT. Did Burger King explain to these people that within 24 hours of eating both the Big Mac and the Whopper they were almost guaranteed to have explosive shits the likes of which they’d probably never experienced before? Don’t you think it would be cruel to not forewarn them? I’m very curious to see if this taste testing came with a disclaimer.

I would love to see someone do a REAL documentary debunking this “Whopper Virgins” bullshit. I’d like to hear what those people really had to say, not just the ones that were selected for the ad (I refuse to call it a “film” anymore) and not just the clips we heard. I’d love for a documentary crew to interview them the next day or the day after and ask how they FELT after digestion and if the people thought it was good food or bad food to add to their diet and what they thought of the unfortunate fact that fast food makes up a significant portion of the North American diet. I bet a real investigation would be very different than what Burger King has presented in their ad.

Anyway, the whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t like it. I think it’s bullshit.  What say you?