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Primae Noctis Burgeris and the (Burger) King

by · December 16th, 2008
Food Justice, On The Web, Television

Thai Hilltribesman with burger

Is it just me or is there something not quite right about Burger King’s “Whopper Virgins” campaign currently gracing our television screens? For the uninitiated (you “Whopper Virgins virgins” out there), the ad campaign features members of various isolated ethnic groups participating in a burger taste test. The marketing shtik is that since the Romanian villagers, Greenlandic Inuit and Thai Hilltribesmen that star in these commercials have never been exposed to ‘burger culture,’ they can be utilized as objective voices in the Whopper vs. Big Mac debate.

There are number of things that are a little uncomfortable about this experiment. It could be the multinational corporation propagating a food that’s both unhealthy for the consumer and destructive to the world to those who have never seen fast food. It could be the introduction of plastic and paper packaging to a place where taking food ‘to go’ means wrapping it in a banana leaf. Maybe it’s the fact that the product being advertised costs more than a day’s income for the stars of the commercial. Or it could be the way the burger missionaries in the online video marvel at the villagers’ ignorance of hamburger etiquette as the natives foolishly attempt to eat the bun separately from the meat.

Above all that though, there is the fear that I’m watching some tragic episode of imperialism unfold before the cameras. That the invasion of the Burger King’s men will somehow set off some smallpox blanket like cataclysm. Perhaps if I had a degree in post-colonial studies I could articulate it more eloquently, but it seems to me that these Whopper virgins have been well… violated.

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7 Responses to “Primae Noctis Burgeris and the (Burger) King”

  1. Al Hunter Says:
    December 16th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

    From what I’ve heard, they obtained the 2 burgers from locally existing stores. There’s probably a cultural and financial divide between the ‘virgins’ and the surrounding commercial retail environment. Pretty soon there won’t be any local Romanian, Icelandic, and Thai food, just more of the same global burgers with identical taste all over the planet. This is not something to look forward to.

  2. Stephanie Says:
    December 16th, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    This campaign is so disturbing on so many levels. As you say, it infantilizes and fetishizes these people, and implies that they are ignorant because they have never heard of fast food (but of course they must have. McDonalds has reached every corner of the world). The implications of de-virginizing these “pure” people is also rife with the worst kind of racial and sexual stereotypes. This whole docu-commercial was filmed like it was some kind of humanitarian operation, and the directors of this “experiment” sound as if they received a divine calling to spread the fast food gospel, like purveyors of McManifest Destiny.

    This is the marketing direction that I expect these unhealthful industries will continue to take – now that they are probably foreseeing more public health regulations (such as bans on trans fats) being implemented in big western cities. It is exactly what big tobacco did since their profits took a tumble in North America and Europe due to stronger anti-tobacco legislation. Their biggest targets are now women in the developing world.

  3. Kerr Says:
    December 16th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

    If by “a number of things that are a little uncomfortable with this experiment” you mean it’s a crock of sh**, playing on nauseating pseudo-ethnography memes from the 19th century, I’m right there with you. Unfortunately some of the outraged protests I’m seeing in the blogworld are creepy for the same reason—the idea that these particular individuals are somehow “pure” and that their innocent state will be sullied by this first intrusion of the dirty global capitalism into their lives is itself naive and paternalistic.

    On the other other hand… McManifest Destiny! That gave me a chuckle.

  4. rejewvenator Says:
    December 17th, 2008 at 8:32 am

    Uh, if these people are “burger virgins” aren’t they eating far healthier and tastier food than fast food burgers on a regular basis? I mean, you people make it sound like burgers are cocaine! People don’t eat fast food because it’s so tasty. They eat it because it is fast, cheap, and reliable, and our culture places a premium on those attributes.

  5. Melinda Says:
    December 17th, 2008 at 10:55 am

    That’s really interesting. I haven’t seen the ads and I’m more on the aggie side than on the foodie side so I haven’t seen it discussed anywhere else. Certainly the choice of the word “virgin” is problematic because it means more than just “hasn’t done that before,” it also has all sorts of associations around purity and whatnot. I’m basically with Kerr. For those interested in that sort of thing Francis Spufford’s “I May Be Some Time” is an enormously interesting look at English imaginings of the Arctic and the people who live there, along with a look at the question of what drove the English to explore the region even while suffering terribly.

    Rejewvenator, I wouldn’t assume people are eating well just because there’s no fast food restaurants nearby. There are severe diet-related health problems in villages through northern North America (both the US and Canada). People were settled in villages by their respective countries and are no longer living subsistence lifestyles. There’s been a tradeoff in remote northern communities between reliable access to food and quality of diet, and what’s available in northern stores is a lot of crap. Extremely expensive crap.

  6. Katie H Says:
    December 17th, 2008 at 10:45 pm

    Melinda made a great point about the loss of native foodways and the crap that followed. I think of what I’ve heard about akutaq or “eskimo ice cream.” It used to be made of berries, seal oil, reindeer fat, and liver. Read: full of omega 3, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Now it is commonly made of berries, Crisco, and sugar. Nothing more to say there.

  7. Tovah Says:
    December 18th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    Just saw this ad for the first time and it made me want to puke. I think these ads are disrespectful, I think they are racist, and I think they are frankly quite scary. I basically agree with all that’s been said. They made me extremely angry, especially knowing what I do about nutrition, native foods, and the way corporations influence diet even in remote areas. Grrr.

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