Burger King has announced that it will withdraw its European advertising campaign for the Texican Whopper out of respect for the Mexican culture. The Mexican ambassador to Spain wrote a letter to the company complaining about the campaign, which features a tall Texas cowboy and a short Mexican wrestler in a lucha libre outfit. In the print ads, the wrestler wears a cape that resembles the Mexican flag.
The Texican Whopper ads ran in Spain and Great Britain. The English language tagline was "A taste of Texas, with a little spicy Mexican." In Mexico City, one newspaper complained that the campaign depicted Mexicans as inferior, while another ran an editorial cartoon showing a wrestler eating a burger with a caption that humorously charged that the ads hit too close to home--a jab at the Mexican infatuation with fast food hamburgers and lucha libre wrestling.
The Texan in the commercials is unshaven, keeps his horse in the living room, and can't open a jar of pickles without assistance from the Mexican. So far, no official protests have been filed complaining about the unfair stereotyping of Texans.
-Robb Walsh