Mary J. Blige has opened up about the controversial Burger King advert that sparked backlash years ago.
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Mary J. Blige is not here to laugh off one of the most talked-about commercial controversies of her career, and she is not pretending to either.
Speaking with online creator Scott Evans, the Queen of R&B revisited the Burger King advert that sparked backlash more than a decade ago.
The campaign featured Blige singing about menu items over the beat of her 2011 track "Don’t Mind", a creative twist that quickly went from promotional idea to public relations headache.
The clip showed her singing, “crispy chicken, fresh lettuce, three cheeses, ranch dressing wrapped up in a tasty flour tortilla.” But what was meant to be playful did not land that way with audiences. Many viewers criticised the ad for reinforcing racial stereotypes, and the reaction online was swift and loud.
At the time, Blige pushed back on how the final version was released.
“I agreed to be a part of a fun and creative campaign that was supposed to feature a dream sequence,” she said in a statement, according to the "Wall Street Journal. “Unfortunately, that’s not what was happening in that clip, so I understand my fans being upset by "what they saw”.
Burger King also issued a public apology, stating the commercial had gone out before final approvals were completed.
“We would like to apologise to Mary J. and all of her fans for airing an ad that was not final,” the company said, adding that a corrected version was intended for release.
The original advert was later pulled.
More than a decade later, the moment still sits with Blige. When asked by Scott Evans if she could laugh about it now, her answer was firm.
“No. I’m not,” she said.
“I would never laugh at that, because my true, honest fans did not think that s*** was funny. The whole way that s*** went down was wrong. The way they shot it was wrong. It was set up to make exactly what happened in the press happen like that.”
"So I said, you know, I know how to do this. Thank you, Lord, for the lesson. Thank you for getting me through it. Now I know how people get down."