Mexico protests whopper of an insult

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A Burger King ad showing in Europe is getting a reaction on this side of the Atlantic.

Mexico is protesting what it says is a major insult contained in the fast-food restaurant’s latest advertising campaign.

The ad, which you can watch at the top of this post, is for Burger King’s Texican Whopper burger and shows a small wrestler dressed in a cape resembling a Mexican flag.

The wrestler teams up with a lanky American cowboy almost twice his height to illustrate the cross-border blend of flavors.

Mexico’s ambassador to Spain said Monday he has written a letter to Burger King’s offices in that nation objecting to the ad and asking that it be removed. Jorge Zermeno told Radio Formula that the ads “improperly use the stereotyped image of a Mexican,” the Associated Press reports.

The use of the Mexican flag seems to be one of the most problematic things about the ad. A print edition of the ad showing the wrestler wearing what appears to be a Mexican flag as a cloak has especially angered officials.

Mexico has very strict rules about using the flag, and Burger King isn’t the first to walk into a cross-cultural marketing blunder.

In 1998, its fast-food rival McDonald’s received a flood of complaints from Mexican authorities when it displayed the Mexican flag on place mats. The Mexicans were offended by grease and ketchup defacing their national symbol and the place mats were quickly removed.

Last year, the appearance of Mexican pop star Paulina Rubio naked and wrapped in the Mexican flag on the front of the Spanish-language edition of Cosmopolitan caused an uproar in Mexico, and, according to the AP report, the government also penalized a foreign-owned publishing house, Random House Mondadori, S.A., for showing disrespect to the country’s flag in a video posted online in 2008.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City