Burger King ad in Spain angers Mexican ambassador

A Burger King advertisement for new Tex-Mex style hamburgers, which features a squat Mexican draped in his country's flag and an American cowboy, has offended Mexican officials who want the spot pulled.

Mexico's ambassador to Spain said posters for the new "Texican whopper," a cheeseburger with chile and spicy mayonnaise, inappropriately display the Mexican flag, which is draped over the diminutive wrestler like a pancho.

"This advertisement denigrates the image of our country and uses improperly Mexico's national flag," Jorge Zermeno wrote in a letter to Burger King in Spain, the Reforma newspaper reported yesterday

The ambassador contacted the local offices of Burger King after he saw the posters in Spain, Reforma said. The burger is only available in Europe, according to the paper.

Mexico has strict laws prohibiting the defamation of the flag, Zermeno said. He asked Burger King to cancel the ad campaign that "offends Mexicans and Mexico."

The Miami-based fast-food chain Burger King was not immediately available to comment.

Last year, Sweden's Absolut vodka angered many US citizens with a publicity campaign in Mexico that idealized an early 19th century map showing chunks of the United States as part of Mexico. The campaign was later dropped.