Desperate & Dateless? Brands Offering Some Free Love This Valentine’s Day

There’s no better time to be in the overpriced restaurant game, floristry or engagement ring business quite like Valentine’s Day.

And with February the 14th fast approaching it appears the desperate and dateless are the focus for many marketers this year.

Fresh from news that a wildlife centre in Oregon in the US will name a salmon after your ex and then feed it to one of their bears comes further news that a Texas zoo is offering a similar service that allows you to name a cockroach after your former crush that will then be fed to one of the zoo’s hungry meerkats.

Here’s how other brands are jumping on the anti Valentine’s Day bandwagon.

Trade a pic of your ex for a free Whopper

Burger King in the US is offering free Whoppers on Valentine’s Day, but it comes with a catch. Heartbroken customers can bring in a photo of their ex to the restaurant’s “breakup boxes” for the free burger.

The promotion is in conjunction with the new Margot Robbie film film Birds of Prey.

New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston are the only cities participating in the Valentine’s Day giveaway. Customers in New York can also bring old love letters, stuffed animals or even a piece of your ex’s clothing to snag their Whopper. Burger King says photos dropped off at the restaurants as part of the promotion will be destroyed.

“Shred your ex” at Hooters

What better way to get over a recent break-up than a trip to busty restaurant chain Hooters. And want to bag yourself 10 free chicken wings? All you have to do is buy 10 to start with and then rip up a photo of your ex in front of a waitress to score 10 more for free. Sadly only available in the US.

Burn your ex’s clothes to get free clothes

Austin-based taco chain Torchy’s Tacos is inviting customers to bring in clothing items of their exes for a group burning. Strangely, rather than score a free taco, participants will score themselves a free Torchy’s Tacos T-shirt. The massive blaze is set down for February 12th between 1pm and 6pm at Torchy’s city store. During that time, the lovelorn can also drown their pasts with discount draught beers and $2 off margaritas. Why it didn’t simply choose to donate the clothes to charity is anyone’s guess. We’re assuming the local fire brigade is on standby.

Kiss anything and get a free burrito

Mexican fast food chain QDOBA Mexican is offering a buy one, get one free burrito offer with a pretty easy catch. Now in its 10th year, all customers have to do is rock up to one of its US restaurants on the 14th and plant a kiss on anything. That’s right, kiss your partner, your kids, your dog or even a QDOBA team member (well, maybe not that) and a tasty burrito is all yours.

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