What's Transylvanian for "OM NOM NOM NOM"?

US advertising agency Crispin Porter Bogusky has raised the ire of bloggers and online commentators worldwide this week with a new documentary-style campaign entitled Whopper Virgins.

Shot by legendary pro-skateboarder-turned-film-producer Stacy Peralta and supported by a TV advertising campaign, its narrative conceit is that the ongoing battle for burger supremacy between McDonald’s and Burger King can only be resolved by the ultimate taste test… with people living in remote non-Western cultures who have never tasted burgers or been exposed to either brand’s marketing campaigns. As the website puts it: “If you want a real opinion about a burger, ask someone who doesn’t even have a word for burger.”

However, the project makes no bones about whose corner it’s in. Burger King logos are all over the site, and the culturally uncontaminated taste testers aren’t being called “Big Mac Virgins”.

While the website includes plenty of picturesque images of people in traditional costume, and emphasises the efforts made by the campaign team to reach these remote folk, it’s not clear what it took to convince the “Whopper Virgins” to participate.

“Don’t forget how convincing friendly people with video cameras can be!” writes an unimpressed Cord Jefferson at Stereohyped. “Just ask all the Girls Gone Wild.”

Jefferson’s reaction is typical of the backlash the campaign is already receiving online. What troubles many commentators is the infomercial’s rampant cultural imperialism: its unashamed exploitation of non-Western cultures to help Western fast food chains sell more of their products. The term ‘virgin’ is deployed without apparent irony, considering the rapacious nature of the exercise.

The consensus among many Twitter users is that there’s something distasteful about the campaign, although given the ambitious scope of the project, Twitterer Jennifer Jeffrey cracks, “Clearly a pre-recession budget.”

Once they've finished their Whoppers, can they put their fancy jackets away again?

“It doesn’t get more offensive than this,” writes an up-in-arms Duncan Riley at The Inquisitr. “If visiting poor people in remote locations, some who would be at best surviving on below poverty levels and throwing a burger in their faces isn’t bad enough, it gets better, because they also ask the Whopper Virgins to compare the taste of the Whopper to a McDonalds Big Mac as well.”

However, other Twitterers enjoy the campaign’s absurdity.

Like it or hate it, this campaign has been a “viral” success for Burger King in an era when many companies try and fail to spread the word about their products online. Crispin Porter Bogusky appear to have aimed to offend, and their gambit has paid massive dividends.

The advertorial will presumably be viewable from the website from December 7 – apart from a countdown clock, there’s currently no other information available about the “premiere”.