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Haley Bonar and M.anifest play free on the Fourth

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Tou Saiko Lee on the BK "Whopper Virgin" campaign

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Tou Saiko Lee. Photo by B Fresh Photography

By Mary Turck , TC Daily Planet
December 26, 2008

December 24, 2008. “In the remote Hill tribe villages of Thailand, they do know what hamburgers are but they do not like to eat them at all and know how unhealthy they are. My brief take on the Burger King commercial that had Hill Tribe villagers trying Burgers for the first time is that yes it is exploitation and made the tribal folks out to not know too much but it was also seeing Hmong people on national television in such a way that I hope peeks the interest of young Hmong Americans to explore how we lived as Hill Tribes in the mountains and how much our people have struggled and are still in those conditions…” From Travel in Spirals, blog of Tou Saiko Lee

Tou SaiKo Lee is a spoken word and hip hop artist/activist, born on a refugee camp in Thailand raised in New York and currently residing in Minnesota. He is part of a dynamic hip hop duo called Delicious Venom and lead MC for a socially conscious funk, hip hop band called PosNoSys: Post Nomadic Syndrome.

Tou Saiko Lee is currently traveling in Thailand, looking for Hmong artists, musicians and traditional poets and family members, and exploring the Hmong way of life in Thailand. Despite limited internet access, he is blogging about his experience.

For the heated debate on the BK “Whopper Virgin” campaign, see Minnesota Hmong protest against the BK “Whopper Virgin” campaign and the comment section that follows.

For more on Tou Saiko Lee’s travels in Thailand, check out Travel in Spirals.

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Tina's picture

whopper virgins

Submitted by Tina (not verified) on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 12:34.

Yes, I thought the same thing initially, but those commercials are as real as Borat. As in, not at all. Those ‘villagers’ are actors. So no innocents are actually being exploited except by the concept that Whoppers are good for all, the idea of Burger King as a missionary/ sexual encounter.

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workaround

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