Burger King ‘milkshake’ tweet branded irresponsible

The ASA has said a tweet by Burger King was irresponsible and warned it must ensure its ”future marketing communications did not condone or encourage anti-social behaviour.”

On 18 May 2019 Burger King sent a tweet which read: “Dear people of Scotland. We’re selling milkshakes all weekend. Have fun. Love BK. #justsaying”.

The tweet was sent the day after a McDonald’s in Edinburgh stopped selling milkshakes or McFlurrys because of a trend to chuck milkshake over polarising political figures including Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson, and Farage was due to make further appearances in Scotland.

The ASA said 24 complaints were made about the ad because they believed it “encouraged violence and anti-social behaviour”.

Burger King said the tweet was ”intended to be a tongue in cheek reaction to recent events where milkshakes had been thrown at political figures”.

It also said it ”did not endorse violence and that was made clear with a follow-up tweet posted after responses to the tweet under complaint”.

The follow-up tweet read: ”We’d never endorse violence – or wasting our delicious milkshakes! So enjoy the weekend and please drink responsibly people.”

The ASA said the tweet was ”likely to be seen as a reference to the recent incidents of ’milkshaking’ political figures.

It acknowledged the tweet ”may have been intended as a humorous response to the suspension of milkshake sales by the advertiser’s competitor” but said in the context in which it appeared we considered it would be understood as suggesting that Burger King milkshakes could be used instead by people to ’milkshake’ Nigel Farage.”

It concluded the ad had therefore ”condoned the previous anti-social behaviour and encouraged further instances” and that it was ”irresponsible”.