So this morning Hubby woke up a little early. Perfect excuse to grab some breakfast right? Normally we’d hit up Hardees, but since he only had a very limited amount of time we couldn’t afford to waste time sitting in the very long Hardees drive-thru line. Instead we opted to hit the empty Burger King across the street.

Pulling up the the window I immediately spotted something new…a sign on the window reading “no videotaping or photography permitted”. I, being the smartass I am sometimes, I totally would have started snapping photos if I’d had my cell phone on me, but I didn’t. Denver Metblogs does have a photo of the new window stickers, so feel free to check it out.

Instead I knocked on the window until I got the guy to come back, then I asked for an explanation. He claims it’s because cameras distract the employees causing it to take longer to complete their jobs.

Bullshit.

So, I guess this means if your kid is having a birthday party at Burger King you’re no longer allowed to tape any part of it, right? There’s no snapping photos of your kid sitting there with their little cardboard crown smiling away anymore. What’s up with that? One of my favorite photos of myself as a kid is me sitting in BK with my little BK hat on sipping on a milkshake. Yes, I was a truly adorable child, but we’ll save that for another day.

When I asked the guy about it he said “if you want to have a party contact our manager. We may be able to arrange for a professional photographer.” Seriously? What kind of crap is that!

I have a few thoughts as to why Burger King could possibly be banning cameras.

1. There’s the possibility that they don’t want their logo or anything related to them showing up in any photos or videos anywhere due to copyright reasons.

2. Maybe BK is tired of all the prank videos showing up on Youtube and such?

3. Maybe they’re tired of people like me snapping photos to prove how crappy their food is! It’s become a habit for me to carry my camera with me inside all stores and restaurants I visit because if something is bad, I’m going to get evidence of it.

4. Oooh, maybe it’s got something to do with Dateline’s “Dirty Dining?” story where Burger King was rated the dirtiest chain after hidden cameras visited the chain among many others. Coincidence? Check out the report for yourself.

I guess we’ll never know until we receive a statement from Burger King themselves. I planned to email them for a statement as soon as I got home, but it seems Burger King is no longer accepting emails. It looks like I’ll have to wait for their corporate offices to open at 9am so I can call for their reaction.

I may just return to Burger King later today waving my camera around in plain site until I get their attention, or maybe I’ll snap a few photos with my cell phone to show them just how hard it’s going to be to stop people from taking photos. Do they realize how easy it is to pretend to be looking at something else on your phone while you’re really taking a photo? What’s next? Will they ban camera phones completely?

Seems like someone’s gone off their rocker if you ask me.