Burger King Russia cuts promo rewarding women impregnated by World Cup stars with Whoppers
The Russian corporate account for Burger King has backtracked after running a social media campaign offering free Whoppers and a monetary reward to women who managed to get impregnated by footballers. Despite Russia currently tallying the most goals at the World Cup so far, the campaign was built to increase the footballing "genes" of the nation.
Burger King causes a stir with pregnancy competition
The Guardian reports that the promotion offered women 3m Russian roubles (£35k) and all the whoppers they can handle in a lifetime if they could prove they netted a footballer's child.
Russian social network VK was the site of the quickly-walked-back joke. The campaign is the second prematurely canned food/child campaign at the World Cup, following Mastercard’s gamified feed-a-child drive led by Leo Messi and Neymar.
The fast food outlet offered an apology after the post was removed on Tuesday. “We offer apologies for the announcement we made. It was too offensive.”
The effort to secure “the best football genes” and “ensure the success of the Russian team for generations to come” coincidentally apes an Irn-Bru campaign that urged Scots to partner with Brazilians for the same purpose. It was produced by Leith Agency in Edinburgh.