• by Todd Wasserman , Staff Writer, June 15, 2022

Halfway into Pride Month, the participation from many brands has been found lacking. Chief among them is Burger King. The fast feeder ran a Pride Month promotion in Austria that featured “two equal buns,” which was Burger King’s way of signaling “equal love and equal rights.”

In a statement, BK’s Austrian ad agency, Jung von Matt Donau, apologized for the promotion. “We at Jung von Matt Donau are proud of our queer community within our agency. Unfortunately, we still messed up and didn’t check well enough with community members on different interpretations of the ‘Pride Whopper.’ That’s on us,” read a statement from the agency.

The agency’s faux pas was to run an ad featuring a Whopper with two “tops” and two “bottoms,” a snarky reference to gay sex. The subtext was brought out on Twitter, where some pointed out the likely symbolism.

Burger King is far from the only brand to bungle its Pride Month promotion.

Walmart introduced some Pride merchandise, including a T-shirt that says “Come out, come out wherever you are,” that at least one person perceived as a threat.

For its part, Postmates rolled out a “Bottom-Friendly Menu” replete with sushi and coffee.

Meanwhile, Data for Progress researched 500 top brands and tracked their donations to “anti-LGBTQ politicians” and found that AT&T, Comcast, Toyota and State Farm donated to such politicians despite sponsoring Pride events.

Still, the brand support for Pride Month this year appears to be unprecedented. Among the other brands celebrating include:

• Miller Lite, which introduced a book highlighting bars that have supported the LGBTQ community.

•1800FLOWERS, which introduced special products to celebrate Pride Month, of which the brand will donate 20 percent to GLAAD