A burger franchise in Brisbane that is next door to a homeless shelter is sending out 20 000 pens that look like blood-filled syringes to appeal to the drug user who frequent the accommodation.
A local social service made complaints about the marketing gimmick by Burger Urge on Brunswick Street, which is using the syringes to promote its new menu, featuring options including “Lamb Phetamine,” and “Beef Injection,” ranges.
Police subsequently visited the store and said they had “a number of concerns” about the pens.
Rod Kelly, general manager of the 139 Club homeless shelter next door, said is using the promotional tools “without any thought of moral and community responsibility,” and has urged people to strongly consider making purchases from the outlet.
"I am unable to see any synergy or strategic direction between serving food to the local community and promoting a business through what appears to be a blood-filled syringe," he told News Ltd.
Kelly is in charge of Queensland’s biggest homeless day centre, which supports up to 70,000 people each year, many of whom are battling drug and alcohol addiction.
"I’m an ex-intravenous drug user and, in the early days when I was getting clean, if I saw that in my letterbox it would have made me want to start using again," he said.
"Imagine going to your letterbox … to find a syringe filled with what looks like blood," he said.
"Parents will be asking their children to check the mailbox only to find a pen that looks identical to a hypodermic syringe."
The Courier-Mail questioned Burger Urge co-owner Sean Carthey over the move, asking if he was comfortable about using drug addiction to sell burgers to people suffering physical and mental illness caused by drug use.
"Yeah, that’s a fair comment," he responded.
"Umm … I am comfortable with it because we talked about it long and hard and, at the end of the day, if someone can’t pick up a syringe and realise that it’s a pen, you know.
"It doesn’t say ‘drug addiction’ on the pen, it says ‘taste addiction’," he said.
"I am comfortable with it.
“Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I don’t know."
Image: News Ltd