Burger King to scrap ad after complaint

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Fast food giant Burger King apologized Tuesday for an advertisement featuring a squat Mexican draped in his country's flag next to a tall American cowboy and said it would change the campaign.

Mexico's ambassador to Spain said posters released in Europe for Burger King's new Tex-Mex style "Texican whopper," a cheeseburger with chile and spicy mayonnaise, inappropriately displayed the Mexican flag, whose image is protected under national law.

The ambassador wrote a letter complaining to Burger King and requested the ad campaign be discontinued.

Burger King said the ads were meant to show a mixture of influences from the southwestern United States and Mexico, not to poke fun at Mexican culture, but said it would replace them "as soon as commercially possible."

"Burger King Corporation has made the decision to revise the Texican Whopper advertising creative out of respect for the Mexican culture and its people," it said in a statement.

"The existing campaign falls fully within the legal parameters of the United Kingdom and Spain where the commercials are being aired and were not intended to offend anyone," the company added.

A TV version of the ad shows the strapping cowboy and the pint-sized Mexican wrestler -- nicknamed "Just a Little Bit" -- living together as roommates. At one point, the American lifts up the Mexican to help him put a trophy on a high shelf.

Mexico was involved in another controversial ad campaign last year when Absolut vodka posted billboard ads in Mexico with an early 19th century map showing chunks of the United States as part of Mexico.

The campaign angered many U.S. citizens and was later dropped.

Odd News-If you'd like to smell like Burger King

NEW YORK – Burger King has launched a new men's body spray called "Flame," which it describes as "the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat." he fast food chain is marketing the product through a Web site featuring a photo of its King character reclining fireside and naked, except for an animal fur strategically placed to not offend.

The marketing ploy is the latest in a string of virile ad campaigns by the company.

Burger King is also in the midst of its Whopper Virgins campaign that features an taste test with fast-food "virgins" pitting the Whopper against McDonald's Big Mac.

Stupid News - Ohio Burger King worker fired for bathing in sink

Stupid News - Ohio Burger King worker fired for bathing in sink

XENIA, Ohio - Burger King Corp. said Tuesday it had parted ways with an employee who was recorded taking a soapy bath in a utility sink in one of its restaurants in a video that ended up on his MySpace page.

The nearly four-minute video, which was posted online Thursday, shows the man taking the bath to celebrate his birthday. In the video, shot by another worker, the employee refers to himself only as "Mr. Unstable" and appears to be naked.

Timothy Tackett, 25, told WDTN-TV in Dayton that he is the sink-bather and that he made the video for his MySpace page. The video had been removed by Tuesday night.

Tackett said he regretted taking the bath because it led to the firing of the employee who did the recording, as well as the restaurant's shift manager.

Burger King spokeswoman Denise Wilson said earlier Tuesday that two employees involved in the incident were fired and a third quit. She declined to identify the employees or say whether the man who took the bath quit or was fired. Tackett said he was fired.

A message left by The Associated Press for a Timothy Tackett in Centerburg was not immediately returned.

Greene County Health Commissioner Mark McDonnell said he dispatched an inspector to the restaurant, but workers had already sterilized the sink, which is used to clean large pieces of equipment.