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Burger King fast food restaurant offers Rusiano coffee

Source: Maxim Grigoryev / Getty

A Russian Burger King has apologized after a now pulled ad left a bad taste in many mouths. In case you didn’t get to see it before it was removed, the ad suggested women get impregnated by World Cup stars for 3 million rubles ($47,000) and a lifetime supply of Whoppers. We just…

Toted as an effort to cultivate “the best football genes” and “lay the foundation for the Russian team’s success several generations ahead,” the ad resulted in rapid backfire, which led the chain to issue a public apology to Russian social media site Vkontakte.

“We apologize for our statement,” they said. “It turned out to be too insulting.” Like we always wonder when these ad fails come about, who the hell greenlit this in the first place?

Last year, the chain found itself in hot water when it used a photo of 17-year-old rape victim Diana Shurygina—who spoke out about her rape at the hands of a 21-year-old man on Russian evening talk show Pust Govoryat (Let Them Talk)—in an online ad for a discount on Big King burgers. Diana was villainized in the rape case that became a top headline around Russia. The talk show hosts even blamed Diana for provoking the assault.

“On social media, Russians turned the image of Diana using her thumb and forefinger to demonstrate how little she drank the night she was raped into a meme,” the Moscow Times explains. “That meme eventually found its way into the Burger King ad, where the hand gesture was used to demonstrate how long the discount would last: ‘Not very long.'”

Not sure who Burger King has on their ad team in Russia, but they may want to reconsider.