After the controversy involving McDonald’s McPicanha without picanha last week, yet another fast food chain was accused of misleading consumers in its advertisements.
This time, social media users have claimed that, despite the name, Burger King’s Whopper Ribs sandwich doesn’t have ribs in its ingredients. Burger King itself confirmed that the sandwich burger is made with pork shoulder and has only “rib flavor”.
See one of the videos published by lawyer Fernando Chagas, who posts about consumer rights on TikTok:
Burger King says it ‘always communicated clearly’
Burger King reported that, since the launch of the product, “it has always communicated clearly in all its communication materials the composition of the hamburger present in the sandwich, produced with pork meat (pork shoulder) and with a 100% natural aroma of pork rib”, without additives and preservatives.
The company also states that “transparency towards our customers is a fundamental and non-negotiable value” and that “all information about the composition of the product can be easily identified in advertising, menus and other official Burger King materials”.
When contacted, Conar (National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation) has not yet commented on the case.
Watch the commercial for the product, released in December 2021, which says that the burger is “rib-flavored”:
The advertisement makes several references to football. At the time, Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras unofficially notified Burger King, saying that the commercial made an indirect mention of the team, which would characterize “ambush marketing”, and asked that the pieces be taken down. The pig is considered the team’s mascot.
For BK, however, the network made no “direct mention of the club” and “the objective was to present the new product in a fun way”.
