Mary J. Blige’s commercial for Burger King was one of the biggest fails and WTF moments of the year. It caused near hysteria online and the R&B legend was the butt of the jokes, receiving ridicule and hate from every corner of the music world. While, everyone was speaking their mind, Mary stayed quiet, but she was deeply hurt and saddened by the outcome of the ad and the recurring backlash. In a new interview with Angie Martinez the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul finally opened up about the whole situation and candidly expressed the heartbreak it caused her…
Mary explained why she took so long to address it. “I felt there was no need for me to say anything because everyone was running with it and crucifying me,” she said. “So I just pulled back and I watched everyone and everything. It’s just something that I thought would have been great for my brand.”
While many viewers thought she must have seen this prior to the release, the 41-year old singer claims she only saw it online the day it was released when she was looking for the comments on her remix to Fat Joe’s “Another Round.” Mary was surprised and embarrassed when she saw the final edit. “I wanted to crawl under the bed,” she said. “It was a mistake, but I did it because I thought it was something that wouldn’t come out like that. It was sold to us that I would be shot in an iconic way. I was looking for someone to have mercy, but no one had mercy. It was a learning experience. It hurt my feelings. It crushed me for like two days.”
Regarding the crazy stand out line she said, “In the part that says “What’s in the chicken wrap?,” I was actually asking them a question for real, I couldn’t remember the words … they sped it up and made me look ridiculous.”
She offered a heartfelt apology to those who may have been offended. “I want to apologize to everyone that was offended or thought that I would do something so disrespectful to our culture. I would never do anything like that purposely. I thought I was doing something right, so forgive me.”
Her childhood dream was to be in a Burger King or McDonald’s commercial. “At the end of the day, it’s something I always wanted to do and dreamed about and that’s why I did it.”
Hear the full interview for yourself below… Based on Mary’s side of the story it would sure seem the BK brand is to blame for any backlash, or potentially racist decisions, but will that stop anyone or you from eating their garbage? Probably not, especially when they run July 4 holiday deals on their popular Original Chicken Sandwich for 1.04 …
What do you think?
I still ADORE this bk commercial lol