Posted on 06/05/2009 1:19:17 PM PDT by markomalley
A row between the fast food giant Burger King and one of its major franchise owners has erupted over roadside signs proclaiming "global warming is baloney".
The franchisee, a Memphis-based company called the Mirabile Investment Corporation (MIC) that owns more than 40 Burger Kings across Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, has described Burger King as acting "kinda like cockroaches" over the controversy. MIC says it does not believe Burger King has the authority to make it take the signs down.
The dispute began to sizzle last week, when a local newspaper reporter in Memphis, Tennessee, noticed the signs outside two restaurants in the city and contacted the corporation to establish if the message represented its official viewpoint. Burger King's headquarters in Miami said it did not, adding that it had ordered MIC to take the signs down.
But a few days later readers of the Memphis paper said they had seen about a dozen Burger King restaurants across the state displaying the signs and that some had yet to be taken down. Media attempts to contact MIC to establish why it was taking an apparently defiant stance were rebuffed, but the Guardian managed to grill MIC's marketing president, John McNelis.
"I would think [Burger King] would run from any form of controversy kinda like cockroaches when the lights get turned on," said Mr McNelis. "I'm not aware of any direction that they gave the franchisee and I don't think they have the authority to do it."
McNelis added: "The [restaurant] management team can put the message up there if they want to. It is private property and here in the US we do have some rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
No one has the right to question Global Warming!
Enjoy while you can, Whopper.
Thank God someone has the guts tot tell the truth
They can’t order him to take down the signs, but I’d bet they can terminate the franchise agreement. The manager should decide if he wants that sign to be the ONLY thing left on his property.
Not necessarily. A franchise agreement is a contract, and if it says nothing about extra signs....
I drive by one of the Memphis BKs each day on the way to work. The first time I saw the sign, it cracked me up. BK food doesn’t have much taste to it IMHO, but I’ve made it a point to stop in and buy some breakfasts anyway just to support the franchise owner.
Bravo. I would almost eat at those Burger Kings!!!
You're correct, but I would expect a clause concerning the display or dissemination of messages not approved by BK corporate.
For better or worse, messages posted at a franchise will be PERCEIVED as coming from the Franchisor (Burger King), and they have the right to have a say in that situation, IMO.
Kinda like in the wake of an erupting volcano the people of the village spend all of their time and resources trying to plug the volcano instead of evacuating and fleeing the lava flows.
We have chosen the futile path, instead of the path of survival.
From now on, I will eat at no Burger King, save for the ones in the Memphis area.
resist...resist...resist
Those signs make me want to go to BK a lot more than that Burger King freak in their commercials.
Yep.
Run a business or run a blog.
Don’t try to mix the two.
Burger King appears to be well within their right to restrict public statements of their franchise outlets.
The Golden Rule -
Them who has the most gold gets to make the rules.
I’d be incredibly surprised if those franchise contracts don’t contain explicit language about the use and image of those outlets. When a company sells a franchise, they’re really selling the IMAGE. As such, they go to great length lengths (as expected) to protect that image.
Very true.
If we could affect the climate, we’d already have a fully functional Cheney-Halliburton “Weather Dominator”.
Cooooobrraaaaaaa!!!!!
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