You wouldn’t normally expect a fast food commercial to make you stop and think, but that’s exactly what a recent ad from Burger King did. To coincide with National Bullying Prevention Month, the burger joint released a commercial that will really make you rethink the way you respond to difficult situations when they come up around you.
Bullying has become a massive problem in our society. The advent of the internet and the ability to anonymously harass a person has led to an infuriating and heartbreaking increase in abuse. Some victims have even taken their own lives after becoming so overwhelmed by the cruelty of their peers.
In an effort to make people reconsider their priorities and encourage boldness in the face of abuse, Burger King decided to do a social experiment in one of their restaurants.
First, they sent some teen actors into the restaurant where a group of them appeared to be picking on a boy who was sitting alone. They called him names, took his food, kicked his chair out from under him, and did many more unconscionable things to him.
It was clear the other patrons in the restaurant were horrified by what was going on, but hardly any of them did anything about it. Despite the fact that most of the witnesses were adults and the bullies were teenagers, they just sat at their tables eyeing the abuse, unwilling to get themselves involved to protect the victim of the bullying.
Little did they know that Burger King had actually set up two forms of bullying that day. In addition to the teens bullying the lone boy, the employees also began to “bully” the burgers they were serving. Before wrapping them up and serving them, they smashed the burgers and made a mess out of them.
The customers’ responses to their “bullied” food versus the way they responded to the actual bullying are very telling. Click below to see it for yourself:
