Friday, June 2, 2017

Burger King, Belgian King and the lese majeste thing.

It is a good thing it happened in Belgium, not - perhaps Saudi Arabia where an art director was this close to being deported for doing an ad for Toyota with the line "queen of the road". Lese-majeste is a serious thing, well, if you are a majeste to begin with.
Burger King, which will open in Belgium, made people vote for their king. Is it the Whopper or their current King Philippe. The operation was a sensation because according to the Belgian palace, the image of the king is protected and cannot be used without authorization. To top it all, Burger King lost at 49%. See the whole campaign on this link.
But winner or loser in the poll, Burger King via Buzzman got what it wanted, and even bowed down in defeat rebranding itself "Burger" "because there is no place for two kings in Belgium". As a small consolation  note to Burger King, "tout ca ne nous rendra pas le Congo".
Oh well, it seems Queen Elizabeth is very chill if one does not curtsy in front of her, and - the hit "God save the queen" was never banned in the UK (sample lyric: "God save the queen/She ain't no human being"). Still, Burger King did their coup, and the only red thing about it ketchup rather than blood!