Burger King’s commercial in Spain for the Texican Whopper, featuring a tall American cowboy and a tiny, chubby, Mexican luchador, “El Cachito,” wearing a cape with the colors of the Mexican flag has set off an international incident.

A promotion of a new hamburger by the American based company, Burger King, in European countries is raising quite in storm in Mexico. A Mexican student studying in Spain wrote a letter to the Mexican newspaper, El Universal, about a new hamburger called the “Texican”. The burger according to internet reviews contains taco flavor or chile con carne as well traditional hamburger elements. Reviews for the large spicy hamburger itself on multiple internet sites have been favorable for the most part, however, what has many Mexicans so inflamed is the advertising campaign.
-Contempo Magazine

Confused? Don’t worry, Amigo, many are. First you have to understand that there are two distinct B.K. Texican Whopper advertisements, a printed ad and a television commercial. The above image is from the Burger King printed advertisement in Spain. On the left you see is a nice, tall, lanky, yet rugged, white cowboy; for those of you who might not know, that would be the Texan part of the new Texican Whopper. Next to him you will find a dark, chubby, tri-colored, eagle adorned, pancho wrapped midget wrestler; that would be the Mexican. The catch phrase of the ad is Unidos Por El Destino, or United By Destiny.

So where’s the now infamous Whopper of an Insult, you might ask? Well, let me tell you. It has nothing to do with the dark, chunky midget wrestler; we actually do have a few of them amognst our varied population. The insult stems from what what he’s wearing as a pancho, the Mexican flag.

Mexico has a very strict law called the Law on the National Coat of Arms, Flag and Anthem which governs respect for the flag of Mexico similar to laws in most countries. In 2008, the government fined a foreign-owned publishing house, Random House Mondadori SA, for showing disrespect to the country’s flag in a video posted online.

“This advertisement denigrates the image of our country and uses improperly Mexico’s national flag. We have to tell these people that in Mexico we have a great deal of respect for our flag.”
-Jorge Zermeno, Mexico’s ambassador to Spain

The television commercial is very different. I’ve watched it over and over trying to find the blatant, scandelous insult, and I just don’t see it. The midget wrestler, although wearing green, white, and red does not use the Mexican flag and the lanky, not so bright cowboy, seems anything but discriminating.

The setup of the commercial is that they’re roommates, working together to clean the house: The muscular wrestler opens jars, the tall cowboy lifts the wrestler up to reach high shelves and helps clean tall windows. Thus the tagline: “The taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican.”

Mexico’s ambassador to Spain said Monday he has written a letter to Burger King’s offices in that nation objecting to the ad and asking that it be removed. Jorge Zermeno told Radio Formula that the ads “improperly use the stereotyped image of a Mexican.”

Wow! I wonder what the proper use of the “stereotyped image of a Mexican” would be? I can see the distaste in using our flag in the print ad, but come on, there’s enough nastiness going on in this world, especially along the U.S./Texas-Mexico border. This commercial shows two very different people creating an ideal partnership; throw down the defensive arms, people, and just admit it: It is funny.

On a higher level, maybe we could all even take note, enough pendejadas. Take a break, relax, and laugh for God’s sake.