I writing again about the need to make Burger King accountable for the objectionable television advertisement that it is broadcasting and to bring you up-to-date about my campaign to make the company pull this ad off the airways.
After writing about the ad in my Wednesday blog, I sent out appeals to four different mental health advocacy groups.
My friends, Bob Carolla and Ron Honberg at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the largest grassroots mental health advocacy group in the nation, responded immediately. Bob, who heads up NAMI’s media relations, and Ron, its director of policy and legal affairs, told me that NAMI Executive Director Mike Fitzpatrick already had written a letter complaining to Burger King.
Mike had mailed it March 4th, but Burger King’s Chief John W. Chidsey had not had the courtesy of responding. (Mike’s letter is attached at the end of this blog.)
I also sent a personal appeal to David L. Shern, the executive director of Mental Health America, the oldest mental health advocacy organization in the nation, and he also responded, saying, “It’s amazing to me that people continue to use these offensive tactics!” (Dr. Shern’s letter to Burger King also is printed below.)
Next, I sent word to Glenn Close’s people at BringChange2Mind, one of the newer anti-stigma groups, and dashed off an email to actor Joey Pantoliano, better known as Joey Pants, asking for his support.
Now that I have gotten the backing of NAMI and MHA and alerted Glenn Close and Joey Pants, I will start sending out copies of my blogs and the Fitzpatrick and Shern letters to friends of mine in the media asking them to call attention to Burger King’s refusal to remove its offensive advertisement.
I’m optimistic that someone in the mainstream media will pick up this story because the ad is so blatantly offensive — it shows the KING running up stairs while being chased by a ‘psychiatrist’ and two men in white coats who are screaming that the King is CRAZY and INSANE. There are other interesting aspects, as well, that make this newsworthy, including hypocrisy.
BK’s Chairman Chidsey sits on the board of HealthSouth, one of the country’s largest health care providers. On one hand, Chidsey advises HealthSouth how to care for patients and with the other, he is ridiculing persons with mental illness.
Is that what sort of person HealthSouth wants on its board?
Two other board members of BK also have connections with health care. Ronald Dykes is a trustee of St. Joseph’s Health System, which has an interesting mission statement on its webpage:
While discussions of health frequently focus on competition and managed costs, Saint Joseph’s has not lost sight of the people behind the numbers or its mission to serve those most in need.
That lofty statement certainly does not fit with a television commercial that marginalizes persons with mental disorders who are among the “most in need.”
BK board member Stephen Pagliuca is on the board of Warner Chilicott, Ltd. an international pharmaceutical company that specializes in women’s health care. Again, someone of Pagliuca’s stature should know better than to be part of an advertisement that demeans persons with mental disorders.
This began for me as one small voice crying in the wilderness and then I discovered that NAMI was screaming too and now MHA has joined us. Our numbers are growing and if we can get someone in the mainstream media to call attention to this ad, then I am certain that Burger King will do the right thing, by removing it and apologizing.
This is an important issue to fight because because Burger King is a huge corporation and if we can get it to pull its ad then we will be sending a message to other corporate giants: STOP STIGMATIZING PERSONS WITH MENTAL DISORDERS!
I’m guessing that one of the reasons why authors write blogs is because they want to keep in touch personally with their readers and let them know about their newest writing project. That’s a great reason, but it is not why I began this blog.
The reason I am writing is because I want to advocate for mental health care reform. I know from emails that many of the persons who visit my website are fans of The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison or are spy buffs who have read my books about John Walker Jr. Aldrich Ames and, most recently, Sergei Tretyakov. Other visitors — especially those who come through FACEBOOK — are friends of Patti or my family and they simply want to know what is happening in our lives.
While I will occasionally write about prisons, being an author, or spies, my main focus will remain advocating for mental health care reform and persons such as my son. To me, mental illness wears his face and demanding better care for him and othes is more important to me than touting books.
Copy of NAMI letter:
March 4, 2010
John W. Chidsey
Chairman & CEO
Burger King Corporation
5505 Blue Lagoon Drive
Miami, FL 33126
Dear Mr. Chidsey:
I am writing to ask that Burger King (BK) please discontinue immediately the television commercial that shows The King on a rampage, chased by men in white coats, and being restrained and taken away—-all the while being called “crazy” and “insane.”
With 1100 state and local affiliates, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) is the nation’s largest grassroots organization dedicated to helping individuals and families affected by serious mental illness. Your customers include our members and we have received a steady stream of complaints about the commercial in recent weeks. I personally was appalled when I saw it.
It is one of the worst television commercials I have seen in terms of perpetuating inaccurate stereotypes about people living with mental illness and undermining public health goals for the elimination of the stigma traditionally imposed on mental health concerns. The U.S. Surgeon General has specifically warned that stigma in popular culture represents a major barrier to people getting help when they need it. In essence, through stereotypes and stigmatizing language, BK is contributing to a public health problem that many government agencies and organizations, at all levels, are trying hard to address.
Upon reflection, I hope you will agree that the commercial contradicts BK’s Corporate Responsibility Report’s (CSR) commitment to building goodwill in the communities in which you operate and integrating respect for diversity, including people with disabilities.
Insensitivity to the Surgeon General’s public healthconcerns also seems inconsistent with your role as a director of HealthSouth Corporation, and the role of BK’s own directors, Ronald Dykes as trustee of St. Joseph’s Health System and Stephen Pagliuca, as director of Warner Chilicott, Ltd. We need your help as business leaders in promoting treatment and recovery.
NAMI wants to rely on BK’s promise that corporate sociality is “a journey” and that you are “whole-heartedly committed to listening, learning and doing more.” We hope that you will start by discontinuing the commercial.
We also hope you will consider working with us to help individuals and families in the communities we mutually serve. For more information about our work, please visit www.nami.org/programs.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Fitzpatrick, MSW
Executive Director
From MENTAL HEALTH AMERICA
April 1, 2010
John W. Chidsey
Chairman & CEO
Burger King Corporation
5505 Blue Lagoon Drive
Miami, Florida 33126
Dear Mr. Chidsey:
As a national organization dedicated to improving the lives of people living with mental illness, we are disappointed and dismayed that Burger King is airing an extremely offensive advertisement that makes a mockery of the seriousness of mental health conditions and stigmatizes those who suffer from them.
Your television commercial that shows “The King” being chased by men in white coats, restrained, and taken away while being called “crazy” and “insane” is deplorable.
This kind of stereotyping and language perpetuates stigma and reinforces perceptions that associate violence with mental illness. “Comic” stereotypes also trivialize medical illness.
We urge you to be a good corporate citizen and stop running this commercial.
Sincerely,
David L. Shern, Ph.D.
President and CEO
About the author:
Apparently the ad 'finished it's run this week'… glad to see that the Post picked this up– is this writer a friend/follower of yours, Pete? Thanks for continuing to advocate for those with mental illnesses. There was also an editorial by Janet Edelman of NAMI in MD in today's Post re: a 'Style' article that made insensitive references to schizophrenia– that one made me wince too. Please remember Ian Smith on his 26th birthday this week as he continues to fight for his life in Fairfax Hospital.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar…
Wow. Has it really come to this. I can understand the CEO of an organization politically having to pay lip service to an upset constituency, but come on! This is out of hand. How a mascot in an absurd frozen plastic mask supposed to somehow stigmatize or even closely represent an entire population of those with mental illness is beyond me. Having spent a few years in the mental health care industry, from the “bowtied” psych techs portrayed in the ad (actually we wore scrubs), to a dual diagnosis care manager (drug addictions and mental illness) I am frankly offended that so much attention and hoopla has been given to this ad. I believe the majority of the general population,from my family members who have MSW's and have run mental health care programs to the clients I have served, would have a hard time taking offense and would consider the reaction on the part of NAMI “crazy” at best. I am a bit embarassed that this is the battle NAMI chooses to fight for all of us in the field and suffering from mental illness when their are real fights on the line, from the disappearance of funding for much needed programs, to the real work needed to be done in destigmatizing mental illness (like fostering awareness of reputable and successful role models who also suffer from mental illness (like Ben Stiller (bi-polar) or Tipper Gore (Depression)). Absent from any of these mad letters is any real talk of who and how Burger King is supposed to have stigmatized and how this ad has crossed the line, when something like “1.99, are you out of your mind” does not. I think choosing this petty battle embitters the public against us, brands us as oversensitive, and sheds question upon our judgement. The next time when a more serious issue is on the line, we'll be the whiners who took down the Burger King ad.
Wow. Has it really come to this. I can understand the CEO of an organization politically having to pay lip service to an upset constituency, but come on! This is out of hand. How a mascot in an absurd frozen plastic mask supposed to somehow stigmatize or even closely represent an entire population of those with mental illness is beyond me. Having spent a few years in the mental health care industry, from the “bowtied” psych techs portrayed in the ad (actually we wore scrubs), to a dual diagnosis care manager (drug addictions and mental illness) I am frankly offended that so much attention and hoopla has been given to this ad. I believe the majority of the general population,from my family members who have MSW's and have run mental health care programs to the clients I have served, would have a hard time taking offense and would consider the reaction on the part of NAMI “crazy” at best. I am a bit embarassed that this is the battle NAMI chooses to fight for all of us in the field and suffering from mental illness when their are real fights on the line, from the disappearance of funding for much needed programs, to the real work needed to be done in destigmatizing mental illness (like fostering awareness of reputable and successful role models who also suffer from mental illness (like Ben Stiller (bi-polar) or Tipper Gore (Depression)). Absent from any of these mad letters is any real talk of who and how Burger King is supposed to have stigmatized and how this ad has crossed the line, when something like “1.99, are you out of your mind” does not. I think choosing this petty battle embitters the public against us, brands us as oversensitive, and sheds question upon our judgement. The next time when a more serious issue is on the line, we'll be the whiners who took down the Burger King ad.