BurgerFuel changes new advertising slogan after Christmas parade crash

BurgerFuel has changed its latest ad campaign and slogan, which initially upset a family member of a person injured when one of the chain’s cars crashed into a brass band at a Christmas parade.

The fast food company launched its new burger combo, the Mitsufishi Feed, this week with the slogan: “Drifting into Summer”.

“Cruise into stores, the ‘Mitsufishi Feed’ is here for a good time, not a long time.” The background image included two cars, one blue and one purple.

Less than 24 hours after its campaign launch, BurgerFuel tweaked the words to “Customised for Summer”.

It follows an incident at an Avondale Christmas parade in West Auckland, on November 25, which involved a BurgerFuel-branded vehicle crashing into members of a brass band playing near the stage.

A member of the band, whose fiancee was thrown under a stage in the crash, said the initial slogan was a “poor choice of words”.

“I’m all for them selling burgers and all that, but they could’ve used different words to sell their product, especially after what’s happened.”

BurgerFuel head of brand and marketing Nikki Soons said the brand was built around car culture.

“All campaigns are planned and placed with media months in advance. There was no intention to cause any offence to anyone.

“Due to how recently the incident occurred, efforts have been made to modify this particular campaign wherever possible.”

BurgerFuel's newest burger campaign had a "Drifting into Summer" slogan, which has since been changed.

Advertising expert and The Goat Farm creative director Vaughn Davis, who was not connected with the BurgerFuel campaign, said promotions often took a long time to develop, but that didn’t mean businesses couldn’t alter campaigns to adjust for current events.

“The Mitsufishi drifting one will have been under way a long time before the Avondale accident. Crappy timing, though.

“Other than tweaking that ad message, I expect the company will be looking at how to make things right with the Avondale community and the people injured on the day.”

Police confirmed the investigation into the Christmas parade incident remains ongoing and no arrests have been made or charges laid.

Paramedics treated six people at the scene. Police said five people were injured, including an adult and two children who were pulled from the car and assaulted.