"whopper" news and stories

A California couple was recently charged $4,334.33 for four Burger King hamburgers, the AP reported. Apparently the slip-up came when the cashier rung up a charge of $4.33 on customer George Beane's debit card and then, thinking the transaction had not gone through, entered the amount again again, resulting in the $4,334.33 charge. The charge was unable to be reversed for several days because of the way the Beane's bank places holds on large transactions. Their money was eventually refunded and they actually got the original four burgers—two Whoppers Jr. and two Rodeo Cheeseburgers—for free.

As far as I understand it, the purpose of advertising is to sell more products, not to frighten the customers. Unfortunately, Burger King's advertising department does not seem to have gotten this message. During the Super Bowl yesterday, Burger King unveiled a new, multi-million dollar ad featuring its skin-crawlingly creepy, plastic-headed mascot, the King. As though his mere presence was not enough, the commercial consisted of women dressed as the salad toppings on a hamburger - lettuce, onion, tomato, etc. - dancing around before being rather unceremoniously tossed into a pile which, coincidentally, managed to resemble a hamburger. The "tasty and eye popping" women/toppings are ogled by the king during and after the formation of the "burger."

Creepy, sexist and, no doubt, offensive to more than a few people, does Burger King really see an increase in sales after airing ads like this? I would prefer to see a commercial that showed the actual food product, not a strange Whopperette version of it.

You can view the whole ad, if you are so inclined, at Adjab.

[Image from Adjab]