After getting her name dragged through the mud over the controversial Burger King Crispy Chicken Wrap commercial, Mary J. Blige admits that the harsh words from fans and critics got the best of her.
By: Taren Vaughan
Before she was in hot water for owning money on a loan for her charity organization, Mary J. Blige was making headlines for something she thought would bring her positive responses from her fan base. Instead, many of them got on her case hard for the coonin’ that they thought she was doing to make some quick fast food bucks. The Burger King Crispy Chicken Wrap Commercial made people look at Mary sideways as she sung a short melody about the franchise’s new menu item. A few seconds of singing about a chicken wrap led Blige to become the center of controversy. And because she was singing about chicken, the race card was pulled out with the quickness and the trash talking commenced.
Some artists would act as if none of the negative comments bothered them, brush them off and keep it moving. But ‘The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul’ wasn’t afraid to admit that she felt bad about how the whole thing went down.
In an interview that she did with Hot 97, Blige said that once the ad was shown to the public, the unexpected backlash soon followed. And she could do nothing but sit back and take it all in:
“I felt there was no need for me to say anything because everyone was running with it and crucifying me,” “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. … It just broke my heart. People were going crazy. What this did, it exposed everyone and everything that was in my life.”
The harsh criticisms that were thrown her way took Mary for a loop, causing her to believe that doing the Burger King ad was a bad call on her part and she hoped for someone to sympathize with her:
“I wanted to crawl under the bed,” “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.”
Regardless of what her bank account looks like though, at least she could admit that her judgment was off on this one.
Speaking of the commercial, did it scream racism to you or was it blown way out of proportion?
Aww I know this had to be really hard for her. I’m sure she still has her big fan base anyway. most people found it funny, only a small portion were angry. Me personally, I think it was made bigger than it should have been. Glad she learned something from it though.
After all she went through with this commercial, you would think the Crispy Chicken Wrap would at least be delicious. That thing is terrible. I think I was more angry about that then the commercial.
I don’t think she’ll ever be able to escape this. As soon as it happened, it had to be thousands of spoof videos and remixes on Youtube. It was just like one big joke at Mary’s expense. I’m sure she’ll still be successful, but we all know most of us will never be able to escape the image of her singing about some crispy chicken for Burger Kang.
I really do not get it. Why are we mad at her for signing a cute song about some food?!!!!! WTF is wrong with people. I liked the commercial and I really hope people will pull there head out of their asses. I am really getting tired of people coming down on the black community every time we say or act excited about chicken What the F people!!!! Get yo life america!