Burger King censors its 'food porn' to combat cravings during SA lockdown

This is according to Ezelna Jones, group marketing executive at Burger King, who says that the company has recently embarked on a campaign to reduce visibility of all digital ‘food porn’ in its advertising for the duration of the nationwide lockdown. “Since the start of lockdown, many customers have reacted to our posts on Facebook and Twitter with a mix of longing and sadness. This includes all too frequent Tweets containing the phrases “these cravings are torture”, or even just sad face emojis.”

“Out of respect for our long-suffering customers during the Whopperless days that are still ahead, Burger King has therefore committed to tastefully censoring all gratuitous images of our delicious meals to reduce cravings. In addition, we have renamed our most popular food items to further help our customers avoid thinking about the great flavour of our meals.”

Jones explains that all images of Burger King’s meals and quality ingredients will henceforth be pixelated, and the popular items, ‘Whopper’ and ‘Chicken Nuggets’, will now be known as ‘Lockdown Whopper’ and ‘Lockdown Chicken Nuggets’. These measures will stay in place, and more food items will be renamed for the sake of decency, until the necessary nationwide lockdown is lifted.

Fortunately, Jones can report that Burger King’s lockdown campaign has already been met with a significant measure of support. “Some of the responses that we have received so far include ‘well played’, ‘Aaah, I love this’, and ‘you’re always considering my feelings’. Honestly, it is truly rewarding to know that we have already made a (tiny) difference.”

Since it will still be some time before Whoppers can legally be bought and sold in the country again, Burger King has stated that it will remain committed to helping South Africans manage their cravings.

“We take our responsibility to our customers very seriously, and we hope that this campaign will help them to reduce their cravings to bearable levels during these extremely challenging times. Stay safe South Africa and we look forward to sharing a Whopper with you soon” Jones concludes.

^{*Food porn: Images that portray food in a very appetising or aesthetically appealing way.}