Burger King wallops Whoppers for anti-bullying social experiment
Burger King is taking a stand against bullying by conducting a unique social experiment within one of its branches.
Bullying Junior has been devised to presage anti-bullying week in the UK from 13 November by employing child actors to stage a mock fight in front of shocked patrons, whose reactions were caught on camera as they witnessed a schoolboy being bullied by his friends.
The chain also let loose a malign employee (also an actor) to surreptitiously mash unsuspecting customers burgers.
In the course of its experiments 95% of customers reported their badly beaten bun to staff before chowing down, but a mere 12% had the courage to intervene and ride to the bullied boy’s rescue.
Nicholas Carlisle, chief executive and founder of No Bully, said: “We know that bullying takes on many forms, physical, verbal, relational and online. But the first step to putting an end to bullying is to take a stand against it. Our partnership with the Burger King brand is an example of how brands can bring positive awareness to important issues. You have to start somewhere and they chose to start within.”
Burger King was moved to act following the publication of stats indicating that 50% of UK school children have been bullied at some point in their lives, of which half of those kids have been bullied within the past year, according to Ditch the Label’s Annual Bullying Survey 2016.
As such bullying has risen to become a national and international concern with Facebook moved to recruit 4,500 digital ambassadors to stamp out such behaviours online.