For some reason, one of the worst reviewed fast food restaurants in America has made the bold decision to get into political activism - and in doing so demonstrated how ridiculous the policy they are advocating truly is.
In order to protest last month’s decision to repeal Net Neutrality, Burger King has created a video for social media showing one of their restaurant repealing “Whopper neutrality.” In it, “customers” become outraged when they are told that they will have to pay extra in order to have their Whopper order fulfilled right away. As the BK Worker behind the counter explains “Burger King Corporation believes that they can sell more and make more money selling chicken sandwiches and chicken fries, so they are slowing down access to the Whopper.” The video ends with the customers claiming that their regrettable decision to eat at Burger King helped educate them on what net neutrality means to them.
Unfortunately their attempt at John Oliver-level policy analysis has some obvious problems.
For one, Burger King does not have a “Whopper neutrality” policy - and for good reason. If a family of five places a large order, while the next customer simply orders an ice cream cone, most Burger King employees will not refuse to serve up the dessert until after they fulfill the first order. The aim is to serve as many customers, as quickly as possible.
Similarly, a Whopper meal comes in various sizes - all with different prices - all so that customers have more flexibility based on having their food desires met. Imagine if a government regulator decided that since Americans have a right to have their thirst quenched - no matter its size - all fast food restaurants had to price all drink sizes the same? The result would be the prices for small drinks going up, while restaurants having to submit to occasional inspections by government agents to make sure no one was violating beverage neutrality laws. (This of course would still manage to not be the worst soda-related policy that’s been proposed.)
Additionally, Burger King certainly has the right to not prioritize delivering their customers food in a timely matter, just as customers have a right to avoid their services as a result. Whether or not the customers in the video were authentic or not, their reaction to the absurd fictional policy is how you’d expect someone to act. The video suggests that none of them would be excited about returning to Burger King if this had become actual franchise operating procedure. Once again, the market has its own ways of punishing bad actors.
Which is precisely why I will be avoiding Whoppers myself for the foreseeable future.
