A Melbourne burger restaurant has felt the full wrath of vegans after it unveiled a new veggie burger it’s named the ‘Greta Thunburger’ in honour of the 17-year-old Swedish environmental activist.
The $15 burger is the creation of inner-Melbourne take-away Lazy Gramps, however, it’s the description on Uber Eats that’s attracting all the attention.
Lazy Gramps described the ‘Greta Thunburger’ thus: It’s “full of hot air, light on facts and high in carbon monoxide”. It also said “you ruined my meat”, a reference to Greta Thunberg’s 2019 speech to the UN in which she said “you have stolen my childhood with your empty words”.
The description says the ‘Greta’ burger comes with a “homestyle falafel, tomato, pickles, lettuce drizzled with a houmas (sic), tahini sauce, with minimum carbon foot print.”
Apparently the burger has sold-out following the subsequent media attention.
But rather than infuriate the climate activists, Lazy Gramp’s stunt has got the vegans up in arms.
A private Facebook group for vegos called the burger and its description “tone deaf at best, disgusting at worst” and “an attempt at belittling a child”.
Another post added: “No way would I support a business like this.”
“If someone said all this about me I’d laugh but I always find the criticism of Greta difficult because she’s so young,” another wrote.
While another penned: “Terrible marketing, they are risking offending the exact niche they’re trying to sell to! Not very clever.”
But Lazy Gramp’s owner “William” said the whole thing was intended as a joke and was not meant to offend.
“The description is aimed mainly at mainstream media who we believe via Greta, push division among people by pushing a certain narrative of us versus them,” William told The Daily Mail.
He added the ‘Greta Thunburger’ was Lazy Gramp’s third most popular menu item, behind the Big Bird chicken burger and the Hawaiian Rocker Fella beef burger.
“I say to the people offended by the description to please feel free to send in your own fun description of the Greta Thunburger and we may replace it with the current description,” he said.
