Burger King’s new hamburger to celebrate Pride Month has caused quite the stir on social media, debuting a “Pride Whopper” with “two equal buns” in Austria.
Customers will choose between a “top” or a “bottom” buns choice until June 20 to promote “equal love and equal rights,” the company said in an Instagram post last week. Burger King said in the post that the new burger’s “little twist” is “meant to put a smile on our faces and to remind us to treat each other with respect and peace.”
Some users on social media found the new burger funny, while others criticized the company, arguing that the joke was offensive and an example of “rainbow washing” (companies showing surface-level support for the LGBTQ+ community without any specific action that could improve their lives). It is not clear whether Burger King plans to donate any money made from the Pride Whopper to LGBTQ+ organizations.
Per CNN, Burger King called attention to rival Chick-fil-A’s history with the LGBTQ+ community last year; Burger King said they would donate 40 cents to the Human Rights Campaign (the United States’ largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization) for every Ch’King chicken sandwich sold during Pride Month.
In a 2018 interview with a local Atlanta TV station, Chick-fil-A chairman and former CEO Dan Cathy said he did not support gay marriage, but was not anti-gay, though the company donated to charities with anti-LGBTQ stances, Vox reported.
See how Twitter reacted to the “Pride Whopper” below:
