Burger King is now advertising poutine here in Canada. It's kind of gratifying that they are trying to fit in with something a bit more substantial than the maple leaf that chains like to work into their logos. I know fast food chains put a lot of work being acceptable to foreign cultures, so I'd love to see their Department of Cultural Sensitivity trying to figure out how to appeal to Canadians. "We could sell donuts." "Nah, they only like Tim Hortons." Apparently after years of travelling across the country looking for unique Canadian foods, they finally got to Quebec.
But they've also put an American spin on it that I find disturbing: it's available in regular and with bacon. To me, this is far worse than the KFC Double Down. Someone looked at a food that has only three ingredients, all of them high in fat, and said, you know what this needs? One more ingredient that's high in fat.
Wendy's does a better job, editing poutine into the latest ad with that woman I made fun of earlier, who I'm sure has never heard of poutine. And their "poutition" to make it the national dish is cute, and much less self-serving than when Guiness tried to make St. Patrick's day a national holiday a few years back. But asking for a Poutine Referendum would have been way funnier.
As an avid poutine lover, I have to point out that a) Burger King has been selling poutine since at least the mid-1990s and b) bacon poutine has been around at least that long, along with hamburger and onion, hot dog, italian (spaghetti sauce), and pizza poutine.
ReplyDeleteThe BK stuff isn't bad for fast food, but isn't as good as KFC's ... and of course neither can compare to a French-Canadian casse-croute.