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Josh Thaw
ENC1101

Companies all across the world have been ridiculed for

inappropriate ads released in magazines and over the internet.
According to Forbes in 2015 Burger King is one of the largest
companies in the world and the third largest fast food company in the
world behind Wendys and McDonalds. They are a fast food chain and
have been criticized for years for serving food that shouldnt be
consumed by anyone ever. Recently they released an ad that received
high criticism for being sexist and inappropriate for children of all ages
and even adults. The company makes food and the ad represents
something else that shouldnt be an ad to begin with. Burger King
drew the ad and released it in only Singapore and the man who

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designed the ad believed in sexual self-expression in selling any type
of products. The company quickly released a statement claiming they
were never planning on releasing the ad in the United States for
conflicting reasons, which raised a lot of questions as to why it was
even released in Singapore (Nudd 2014). Burger King quickly took
back and stopped all prints of it as soon as possible after receiving a
staggering amount of complaints but did not apologize for it. In fact
the company released a statement after hearing the complaints for the
ad saying they respect all its guests opinions but not a single apology
at all.
Burger Kings ad for a newly released sandwich brought horrible
media to their attention across the nation and globe. The ad shows
women with her mouth open and Burger Kings new sandwich entering
it. The metaphor for the sandwich represents a sexual reference.
Burger King attempted to call the sandwich the BK Super Seven Incher.
The name itself is highly inappropriate especially for children and
people of all ages. The ad makes references everywhere to other
sexual things. The ad attempted to attract males for the sandwich.
Burger King assumed their target audience for the sandwich would
generally be males approximately from 16-50. The ad was supposed
to relate to half of the population in the world but didnt realize the
amount of harm over good the ad in general caused. Burger King
released the ad in mainly mens magazines such as Time Magazine,

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The New Yorker and even Sports Illustrated and commercials on shows
generally watched by males. The name of the burger itself is a simple
unit of measurement making people wonder why Burger King would
even want to release a seven-inch cheeseburger. The ad is extremely
misleading. Ironically when the company first opened it truly and
genuinely cared about the food they sold and the consumers who
purchased it but just like everyone who becomes successfully on a
global scale it slowly changes over the years. Burger King became a
company based around its food and consumers to a company trying to
gain the most money and win a war over McDonalds and Wendys for
the largest fast food chain in the world. Their original advertisements
would show couples and teenagers enjoying a nice juicy burger on the
go, hand tossed and grilled by a chef. What was meant to be a simple
ad was looked at as degrading towards women as a population. The
company discontinued the ad immediately.
The ad could easily be changed to appeal to the entire
population of cheeseburger Burger King consumers. The ad depicts a
woman with her mouth wide open and appears to have the look of
surprise on her face. If Burger King chose to use a teenage, male or
female, holding the seven-inch cheeseburger in their hands compared
to a regular sized cheeseburger to show the bigger and new size of this
burger than it would eliminate the main sexual reference. More For
Your Bite is a slogan that everyone can relate to. Getting more for

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your dollar and saving money is a common thing everyone across the
globe has in common. The company meant to imply that their seveninch cheeseburger was comparable and better than oral sex. Burger
King needed to change just a few things in this ad to completely
change the view and perception of it. The words around the picture
help sexualize it but without the womens face in the middle the ad
becomes a new ad.
The ad needs to be changed for several obvious reasons. Burger
King generates billions in dollars every year, the company has large
influence over millions of people and should use this power in a more
responsible way. The ad Burger King released tries to show that it is
consensual but a deeper look into the story reveals that the model
didnt even give consent for the ad making Burger Kings actions
completely wrong and it still degrades woman. I believe that an ad like
this would never be released 30 or 40 years ago. In todays world
people are more violent and quick to judge easily, and technology
todays allows for information good or bad to be shared with the world
in seconds. Our parents never worried as much about bad pictures on
the internet representing them badly and even major companies never
worried as they do today about a scandal or inappropriate ad being
criticized all over the world. Sex, drugs and violence are three of the
main things shown on television and magazines today. We grew up in
a society that has made those three things are almost socially

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acceptable. Lawsuits happen everyday for sexual harassment and so
on, giving companies the power to post ads like the one Burger King
released. Burger King assumed that ad like that would be no different
than a TV show with lots of sexual references or a movie but
sometimes a company crosses the line and Burger King did. Burger
King along with the other two fast food chains need to understand that
money isnt the all answer to life and competitively trying to win the
customer over with unique and sometimes inappropriate ads only hurt
the company in the end. Burger King is one of the few with only one
inappropriate advertisement because McDonalds and Wendys have
more than any company should ever have. Although the old saying is,
All publicity is good publicity but in the eyes of the company that is
not always true.
The media raised lots of questions to Burger King about the ad.
Was it for oral sex or a burger? The main woman to get involved in the
take down of the ad was the model used for the ad. Five years after it
was released she discovered it on the internet since it was never
released in the United States. She stated that she had no idea about
the ad until recently. Her name which remained hidden for personal
reasons claimed she was unaware she was even used for the ad at all.
The picture came from another shoot she did completely separate not
for Burger King where she posed making different facial expressions for
the camera. Burger King found these picture and exploited them for

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their own personal gain and even though the picture were legally sold
in a photo shoot sometimes the line between right and wrong can be
crossed (Nudd 2014). Exploiting a model for a highly sexual ad
plastered all over a country was morally wrong of the company
weather it was legal or not. The women went as far as public speaking
to boycott the fast food chain, and even has looked into legal options
(Nudd 2014). Unfortunately, for the women the pictures were sold
legally to Burger King making her case in court a breeze for a giant
corporation like Burger King.
In todays strict and unforgiving world we take for granted
sometimes how harsh we can be as a people. Burger King has never
released an ad before that was highly inappropriate or as sexual as the
one they released in 2009 in Singapore and received hate and criticism
for years for it. People on a global scale stopped eating at Burger King
claiming they were sexist against women. The ad caused widespread
criticism after it was only released in Singapore, if the ad had been
released in the United States or worse, globally then Burger King would
have been looking at million of dollars lost and hate like no other.
Burger King has never released a bad ad before like this and are now
only look at by this ad because no one ever remembers the good
things a company did but only its mistakes.
One of the main problems with burger Kings ad is that not only
was it sexual but it only appealed to one half of the entire population.

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Burger King, off the bat eliminated millions of buyers. A smart market
advisor would create an ad that related not only to the target audience
but people enjoy food in general. I believe my anti-ad is very
persuasive for kids of all ages, women and even men to enjoy. A fun
healthy looking environment for the ad appeals to the consumer.
Changing the ad to be less sexual not only helps sell more of the
product but the company can also advertise on much wider scale.
Burger King could use the anti-ad and place it in childrens magazines,
womens magazines, and even mens magazines. The target audience
has more than doubled and in reality selling millions more of the
cheeseburger.
Burger Kings new seven-inch cheeseburger was an interesting
idea for a new product but their advertisement was not interesting as
they attempted to make it. With a few simple changes to the ad and
keeping the name of the burger the entire view point of it can be
completely changed from sexual to not sexual at all. I highly doubt
the company will release another ad like this weather it is in Singapore
or the United States, another stunt like this and the company will start
to go downhill and lose millions of dollars.

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Reflection:
Throughout the revision of this paper I had to narrow down
all the information that didnt analyze my ad directly. I was very
excited to start this paper and even more excited to revise it. I was
excited to revise it because it helped me better understand my flaws in
writing and how to correct them. I was able to cut out material that
went off topic in the paper. I cut out all information that didnt relate
towards Burger King. I hope to apply to these corrections to future
papers.
Being able to revise my paper aloud me to increase my writing
skills. I now know what to add to my paper to make a great paper with

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analysis. This specific paper helped make me develop more creative
writing skills for any future papers in college.

Works Cited
Nudd, T. (2014, August 4). Unwitting Star of Burger King's 'Blow Job Ad' Finally Lashes Out
at the Company. Retrieved April 10, 2015, from http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/unwittingstar-burger-kings-blow-job-ad-finally-lashes-out-company-159347

Eating a Burger King 'Super Seven Incher' Is Just Like Giving a Blow Job. (2013, June 24).
Retrieved April 7, 2015, from http://gawker.com/5301856/eating-a-burger-king-super-sevenincher-is-just-like-giving-a-blow-job