[RANT] It hasn't been the best eight years for America's image abroad. We elected an idiot-prince-cowboy President twice, fought a few wars and were the epicenter of a global financial meltdown. When we got smart and elected a cool young black dude, all our problems were supposed to be solved. Apparently Burger King didn't get the memo that now might be a good time to put the whole ethnocentric douches act on the shelf for awhile.

BK is unveiling a new ad campaign called "Whopper Virgins," where they travel to remote indigenous villages in Thailand, Romania, and Greenland by helicopter and dogsled to engage locals in blind taste tests of Whoppers vs. Big Macs. (Be sure to check out the website -- it plays weird spirit-flute music and has some hilarious photos of confused and excited foreigners sizing up American beef.)

Here's the teaser ad that's been released online:

Like most of our cultural triumphs, the campaign seems equal parts entertaining, offensive and ridiculously excessive. It rests on a few bedrock principles of global capitalism: there's nothing like bringing delicious poison to the underdeveloped world, fast food burgers will be the most scrumptious things these villagers have ever tasted, and many people will watch on YouTube.

The jury's still out on how the ads will go over once they flood the TV airwaves. For now, advertising blogs seem disgusted and embarrassed at the cultural insensitivity of it all. The gurus who thought it up, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, undoubtedly think they're pulling off an ingenious Borat-in-reverse masterplay, and are gladly soaking up all the excessive buzz that comes with such a grand spectacle. And yup, I do realize I'm a pawn in their game ... welcome to the machine!

To their credit, it's probably a great time for Burger King to be making a power move in the fast food arms race, one of the only markets poised to boom in our end-times economy. But from what we've seen so far, the whole thing offers a pretty similar experience to eating a Whopper -- tastes great while you're stuffing your face with it, but leaves you feeling sick about yourself shortly after. [/RANT]