Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) is to remove some if its London Underground poster adverts following criticism from vegetarians and vegans. Complaints have also been made to the Advertising Standards Authority. The ads stated, 'They eat grass so you don’t have to', and 'Vegetarians, resistance is futile'.
The company stated on Facebook: 'We've been reading the reaction to our latest advertising campaign and needless to say, we're quite taken aback. The last thing we ever intended to do was offend or alienate vegetarians.
'The same vegetarians that we've looked after and fed since our very first restaurant. Our intentions were light-hearted and not meant to cause any offence, but clearly we have, and for that we apologise.
'While we've served beef at the core of our menu since 2001, we've always catered well to the veggies out there, and that's never going to change.
'So having read all your comments and messages, we've made the decision to take down some of the adverts. We'll still serve beef. We'll still serve veggie burgers. But hopefully we'll not tread on anyone's toes while doing it.'