Stupid Bald Headed Technologist Be Insane!

I cannot believe it.

Or rather, I can believe it but I am so disgusted that I have to negate my willingness to believe. The object of my inchoate rage? Burger King's new advertising campaign (http://www.whoppervirgins.com/). They have ostensibly traveled to remote regions of the world to find populations that do not consume the fecal-laced flesh of industrially slaughtered cattle on the dollar menu. They then ask these people to taste their burger and compare it to a competitor's.

So what's so wrong with this? Everything. McDonaldization, global hegemony, an an attitude towards cultural anthropology that dates to the days when the sun never set on the British Empire. Not to mention the implied superiority of American viewers (i.e., "Oh, look at those silly natives who don't even have a word in their language for burger. How uncivilized and backwards they must be!") AAAAARGH!

I am not the only one who is angry about this neo-colonialist advertisement. A routine Google search of "whopper virgins offensive" turns up plenty of coverage, most of it overseas. (Why don't more Americans read European newspapers and news websites?) Two I thought were particularly interesting are:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3546969/Burger-King-under-fire-for-Whopper-Virgins-taste-test-challenge.html

http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2008/12/crispin-brings-bk-food-to-the-unenlightened-.html