Please tell me this is a hoax.
(Sorry–embedding didn’t work. Fundamental flaw in the viral-ad-campaign plan… So open that up in another window, watch a few minutes, and come back and tell me what you think.)
Because the only thing more condescending and creepy-imperialist than dreaming up this ad would be going out and actually doing this.
Several thoughts:
- I guess I’m a prude, but I hate the use of the word “virgin” in context like this (ie, all non-sexual contexts).
- Romania is really that out of the loop?
- Lugging that Burger King broiler contraption into Greenland seems very Herzog-ian.
- Did the film crew have moral qualms about this project?
- The food around 6:30 looks delicious, although I’m afraid I’m meant to think it’s nasty-looking.
- The credits say thanks to “all the people who took us into their homes and fed us.” Which made me almost weepy.
- Watching this, I feel like I’m listening to a horrible fairy tale I already know the ending to: the Whopper is the poison apple.
- The sad thing is, I kinda like Whoppers.
(Thanks to Peter for the link.)
It’s for real. If you only ate seal meat all your life, you’d prefer it too! I also love the Whopper! Make mine a double, with cheese and heavy onions!
I _want_ them to like seal meat better! What I’m afraid of is everyone in Greenland deciding Whoppers are delicious, and then getting fat and diabetic and demanding even more soy and corn products. The seal-meat comment made me feel a little relieved…
This creeped me out.
Katie, I agree with you. I know there’s (always) bigger fish to fry (no pun intended), but to think that Burger King Inc. spent millions of dollars flying a film crew and taste-test ‘consultant’ around the world to make this mockery of a ‘quest for truth’ and ‘sharing culture’ documentary…blech.
I would agree with you, Zora, that the whole enterprise is very Herzog-ian, albeit in a satirical and sad kind of way. Did you ever see the film my former boss (Zak Penn) made with Werner Herzog? It’s called “Incident at Loch Ness”.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374639/
It definitely has its moments, and the director’s commentary on the DVD alone is worth the price of a rental.
PS — I used to be a Whopper die-hard when I was a kid. My dad would pick me up from basketball practice and I’d have two Whoppers, after which we’d go to Carvel where I’d get a thick shake float. Those things were genius, too: a thick milkshake with yet more soft ice cream (need a verb here — what’s it called when the soft-serve comes out of the machine? “swirled”?) into the shake. Kinda miss ’em…
Katie, I know–it’s like proof that the fast-food industry is even _more_ insidious and terrible than you even imagined.
Tal, we should try to estimate our total Whopper consumption. I have eaten so many. I lost my high-school vegetarianism to one, even. When I lived in London, I was so broke, the only place I went out to dinner was BK, and that was when I had coupons. And in Amsterdam, when the food was still bad there, I even had a little eat-6-get-1-free card.
I would probably still eat one now…if I were in an airport, perhaps. But I would not drag an Inuit out of the back of beyond and ask him to eat one.
I’m thinking what would have been a really interesting and cool (and Herzog-ian) documentary is if the crew had somehow been stranded in one of these remote locations for a couple of months (but somehow could power their film equipment). They’d have to learn to live (and eat) like the locals…and maybe they’d even begin to question the wisdom of their whole foolish venture (and our whole foolish fast-food culture) in the first place. Now _that_ would be a film I’d like to see. A reverse Super Size Me. Or something like that: Indiginize Me. (?)
Heh. I like it. Viral ad campaign takes a turn toward Survivor, as produced by, say, National Geographic….