Burger King Commercial
Banned in Costa Rica
Costa Rican officials
decided on Friday to ban
the commercial,
depicting a group of
mothers hiring a hit man
to kill the Burger King,
the company's plastic
headed signature
character, aired on
television by Burger
King.
The mothers want the
Burger King killed
because their children
prefer the King's fast
food over their home
cooked meals.
The vice minister of the
interior, Ana Duran,
said the commercials on
national TV trivialized
violence.
The daily Spanish
language newspaper La
Nación Friday published
a letter from a mother
asking how she was
supposed to explain to
her 5-year-old son why
somebody was trying to
kill the Burger King.
"It's outrageous that
companies like Burger
King make commercials
using the promotion of
killings in this
country," the woman,
Ingrid Moya Aguilar,
wrote.
Government officials say
the commerical could
promote more violence,
with hired killings on
the rise in Costa Rica
over the last several
years.
The company said that
the commercial was
produced in the United
States and has also been
broadcast in other Latin
American countries.
The Instituto Nacional
de las Mujeres (INAMU) -
national women's
institute - had already
asked the government to
take action against
Burger King to remove
the commercial, saying
it was offensive to
women.
Miami-based Burger King
Holdings Inc. said in a
press statement that
company officials have
not been notified of the
action by the Costa
Rican government, but
that Burger King is
sensitive to cultural
and geographic concerns
wherever it operates.
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