UK burger company in hot water over ‘nasty’ Madeleine McCann advert

A burger company based in the United Kingdom has come under fire after posting an advert on social media that appeared to joke about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The Otley Burger Company posted the controversial advert as part of a Mother’s Day campaign which featured an image of the missing toddler and her mum alongside the caption, “With burgers this good, you’ll leave your kids at home. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums out there,” the advert said.

The advertisement was unsurprisingly met with considerable backlash online with many taking to the company’s Facebook page to express their disgust.

“That advert is sick Cheap and nasty and by running it you show that u lack class I m afraid. Very bad indeed!!!!!!!!!”

Owner of The Otley Burger Company, Joe Scholey told Leeds Live that he wasn’t “taking the mick out of a missing toddler”.

“I’m basically putting, ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ to all the mums. She [Kate McCann] is a mum. Not the world’s greatest mum and not the world’s worst. She’s a mum, there’s one there,” he said.

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received three complaints regarding the advert and “considered the nature of the content to be of such a concern” that they requested social media platforms to remove the content.

“We asked the relevant social media platforms to remove the content and suspend the account pending our investigation,” the ASA said in a statement.

“The Otley Burger Company said that they would not use photos of Kate McCann in that manner again or superimpose images of Madeleine McCann being kidnapped. They said that all ads had been removed and would not be appearing again. They also said the image was a meme and there was no product placement, so it was not advertising.

“Meta stated that they had reviewed the content in the Instagram post and had removed it for violating their policies. They undertook a broader review of the Instagram account, removed further content and placed restrictions on the account.Madeleine McCann

“Twitter said the tweet had been deleted.”

Madeleine McCann went missing from her bed at a resort while holidaying with her parents in Portugal on May 3, 2007. The case of the then three year old’s disappearance attracted considerable global attention. Despite a long running investigation Madeleine’s whereabouts remain unknown to this day.