These Massive Burger King Crowns Are The Most Incredible Social Distancing Tactic Yet
As restaurants both here in the US and around the world gradually start to reopen, there’s little doubt that things are going to look and feel a bit different. Whenever it is, there’s a good chance your next dining experience will involve an emptier restaurant, more frequent cleanings, and maybe even a terrifying mask you can eat through.
While Burger King’s parent company has already laid out their reopening plans in the US, getting a Whopper in Germany could soon come with a crown meant to keep people a reasonable distance apart. According to Business Insider, they’ve debuted “social-distance crowns,” which transforms the original Burger King medieval headwear you may remember from childhood birthday parties into a sort of comically oversized regal sombrero with a three-foot radius.
"We wanted to reinforce the rules of high safety and hygiene standards that the BK restaurants are following," said a BK spokesperson to BI. "The do-it-yourself social-distance crown was a fun and playful way to remind our guests to practice social distancing while they are enjoying food in the restaurants."
Given the timing, location, and execution, it would seem that Burger King’s massive crowns took a bit of inspiration from some pool noodle hats seen at Schwerin, Germany’s Cafe Rothe. The circular design of these paper hats also bring to mind the bumper tables spotted at an Ocean City, Maryland bar and grill, except the crowns are presumably a bit flimsier and less conducive to drinking outside.
Germany isn’t the only European country to get a special Burger King “treat” as they cautiously emerge from lockdown. In Italy, they’re selling a “social distancing Whopper,” which has three times the onions of a normal Whopper. Given that recent mint advertising would lead you to believe that wearing a mask forces you to suffer through your own bad breath, you might want to wait until we’re officially past the point of wearing masks.
Would any of these things actually make you feel safer about dining out again? Probably not. Still, it’s nice that some other parts of the world seem to be handling this crisis well enough that they can make these kinds of jokes on their way back to resuming normal life.
