Every child has at one point in their life struggled with bullying and while most of the time, adults overlook this issue as harmless teasing, it can leave life-long scars on a child’s psyche.
Learn how Burger King, the international food chain, has taken on the issue and is changing the perspective of kids and parents alike – through smashed burgers. And how one instance of bullying at Burger King started this movement!
Every Kid’s Nightmare
We won’t give too many details about the young boy who was the victim of bullying here, of course, to protect his privacy. Let’s call him Robert. The teenager never really fit in and liked to keep to himself.
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He lived in a small residential community in Florida and didn’t have a big group of friends. Robert was quiet and preferred focusing on his studies, breaking up his routine by playing video games alone in his spare time.
Mean Teens
Sadly, being a quiet teen made Robert an easy target for bullies and while he could protect himself from them during school hours, afterwards it was a constant struggle. He was constantly harassed by a group of teens and had no help from anyone.
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This has been going on for weeks and despite the bullying happening in public places, no one ever came to help Robert. Though, thankfully the young teen had developed a thick skin and never let the taught and teases get to him. But one day, the bullying took a frightening turn.
Approaching Him
Robert had learned to avoid the school cafeterias which was chock-full of bullies waiting to pick on up, so instead, he would go to Burger King to have his lunch after school in quiet. Happy to know that the bullies were around him there.
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The young teen was minding his own business and enjoying a whopper and some fries when an ominous shadow was cast over his table – three of the meanest bullies from his school were standing over his table!
No Escape
The group of teens had an excited smile on their faces and to any outsider, it all looked harmless but Robert knew that these boys never meant well! And their true intentions were soon about to be revealed.
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One of the teens shouted, “Hey kid!” started poor Robert and before he even had a chance to react, the three nasty teenagers had cornered him. They sat down at his table, blocking him in from both sides.
A Man Notices Them
Robert began to protest. “Leave me alone,” he pleaded. “What you got there?” the bully asked while looking at Robert’s lunch. While this all happened in minutes, to Robert it felt like hours.
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In hindsight, if the teens knew they were being watched – we are sure, they would never have proceeded with bullying Robert further. But as they teased Robert, the stranger sat and watched everything ready to intervene.
Carefully Watching
The unnamed man had witnessed it all, the crude ways the three boys were teasing Robert, their snickering comments about him and he was alarmed! He hoped that Robert would stand up for himself and shoo away the teens.
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But that never happened! Instead of fighting back, the teens had free reign to do whatever they wanted! At one point, one of the bullies snatched Robert’s drink and poured it all over his burger!
Intervening
That is when the man decided he had to do something! He abruptly stood up with his blood boiling! There was no way he was going to let some kids pick on this quiet teen. He could see that the bullying was getting more intense within seconds!
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He swiftly walked towards them, seeing red. “Gentlemen,” the man boomed at the teens. All four boys looked startled and confused! The bullies had done this in public so many times and no one had ever intervened.
Confrontation
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“What are you doing?” The shocked teens stared blankly at him. The “leader” of the bullies was still holding the upturned drink over Robert’s burger and yet he dared to reply “just playing, sir,” with a conniving smile.
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Of course, the man was not buying any of it! “Why are you picking on him?” he replied but the boys acted stumped and confused. They again replied with “Just playing,”, this time looking far more guilty than before.
Not Playing
The leader of the bullies looked uncomfortable and this allowed poor Robert to finally get a few moments of peace. He had never expected that anyone would come to help him, especially not a stranger.
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Robert was too shy to confess that he was being bullied in front of the stranger and stayed quiet with his head down but the bullies whole demeanour had changed thanks to the man’s intervention and they seemed to have cooled down.
Indifference
With an awkward silence falling between the teens, the man had a chance to look around. He saw that the busy fast food joint was brimming with people but none of them had come in to rescue the bullied teen.
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He was very disappointed with the “responsible” adults he was surrounded by and dismayed but he had no time to dwell on this fact and turned his attention back on the bullies.
Berating Them
The man said “Don’t you think your parents would love this? You guys getting arrested for picking on your classmate?” he asked. All he received were glum looks. “You think they’d be proud of you?”
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“No, sir,” the older boy answered indifferently. The man turned to the other two teens and asked “Why didn’t you guys stop him?” the man grilled them. “You guys wanna be part of this?”
Grilling Them
Both boys also replied with a timid “No, Sir”! The stranger was angry but also felt a bit mad for the bullies, they too were also kids after all. So, rather than scare them some more, he turned his attention towards Robert.
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“Are you ok?” he asked him. “Why don’t you take your lunch, and we’ll go over there,” he said. The stranger asked Robert his name and once the two were well acquainted, asked him to get his stuff and join him at his table.
No Lesson Learned
The stranger then left Robert alone, thinking the situation was resolved but he was wrong. The minute he left, the bullies were back at the boy. This time, the teasing was worst than before!
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But again, Robert seemed to have another guardian angel. The stranger wasn’t the only one who had witnessed the bullying there was someone else and she had seen everything from start to finish as well.
Another Perfect Stranger
She watched happily as the man had done what she was just about it but now with him gone to the counter, she saw that the boys had learned nothing from the berating by the adult, so she yelled out to the boy being picked on.
Relatively Interesting
“Hey! Are you okay?”, she said, ignoring the other boys around him. The boy looked up and within seconds, their tough demeanour broke yet again! She looked over to the boys. “Do you know these guys?”, she asked Robert.
Persistence
Poor Robert felt so overwhelmed, he didn’t know what to say. So, he nodded sheepishly and before he could even explain himself, the main bully yelled back, “Yeh, we know each other! We go way back!”.
Relatively Interesting
The woman was instantly alarmed by the way the bully seemed so unconcerned. The teen probably thought that he could win over the woman by smiling at her and lying but she wasn’t going to be so easily fooled.
Lunch Together
She locked eyes with the bully and introduced herself to Robert. Talking out loud she said, “This feels better to me now. I was getting a bit lonely eating over there by myself”. She turned and smiled at the boy.
WeAreTeachers
The two made casual small talk, while the three bullies just stared in confusion. The woman’s confidence was too intimidating for the young boys who had expected this second stranger to also get placated by their lies.
Backing Away
Robert and then the woman soon began talking away to the point that the bullies just stared at them dumbly. They gave each other puzzled looks and soon started to back away and when they were out of earshot, the woman finally asked him the most important question of the day.
Relatively Interesting
“Are you sure you’re ok?”. With the bullies gone, the boy began to find his voice again. “Yeh, I’m okay” he said. “Have you ever been messsed with before?”, he asked. “I got picked on all the time when I was a kid”, she said.
He Came Back
She continued “In an ideal world, somebody else would see something weird happening and come over and be like ‘Hey, this is not okay! but sometimes, people just don’t know how to do that”
The Beijinger
Robert knew exactly what she meant and felt comforted by the woman’s presence and just as they were engulfed in conversation, the strange man came back with a tray of 2 burgers and ice cream!
A Major Twist!
He offered them to the boy, who ate at the food hungrily! The three of them talked and laughed about the bullies, connecting over what had just happened but little did the two adults know that someone else was watching the whole scenario.
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Unbeknownst to the two kind strangers, the whole bullying incident was staged! All four teens were actors hired by Burger King to help raise awareness for their latest No Bully Project!
Orchestrated
The whole bullying campaign was focused on staff being asked to serve “bullied” burgers which of course, all customers complained about while simultaneously staging teens getting bullied around them to see how many people would come and help the bullied teen.
Daily Mail
Sad truth was that 95 per cent of customers reported the “bullied” Whopper Jr. yet only 12 per cent stood up for the high school junior being bullied! This was a thought-provoking campaign by the food chain which was praised around the world!
In The Middle
The man and woman had no idea about the campaign and were part of the 12 per cent to stand up for the bullied teen. “To feel defenceless, that’s one of the worst things in the world,” explained the man.
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“I’ve been that kid, so if I see it, I’m going to do something about it. And I hope there are more people out there like that.” The man’s words truly resonate with us and we hope that more people would get inspired by him!
The Next Step
Burger King didn’t just stop at the bullied burgers to make their point. They released a video that sparked a national conversation about bullying. Titled “Bullying Jr.,” the video’s purpose was to see how people would react when they saw a child being bullied.
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The video was a hit, reaching over 8 million views on YouTube to date. The campaign also attracted a lot of attention on Twitter and we want to give major kudos to Burger King for being at the forefront of fighting Bullying.