Impossible Whopper suit has real implications: Weekend Edition

[Bloomberg]( [A Vegan Sued Burger King Over Its ‘Impossible Whopper.’ He Has a Point.]( — Stephen L. Carter Is it really true that Burger King’s new Impossible Whopper is, as the ads claim, “100% Whopper, 0% beef”? A lawsuit just filed in federal court in Florida insists that the answer is no. The answer matters. The Impossible Whopper, designed to attract vegetarians and vegans who ordinarily avoid fast food, has [driven a surge of traffic]( into the chain’s restaurants. Comparable sales growth in the third quarter of 2019 (the quarter following the sandwich’s introduction) [was a brisk 4.8 percent](. Key to the Impossible Whopper’s attraction is the notion that it tastes like meat without actually containing any. Enter Phillip Williams, the plaintiff in the Florida lawsuit. Williams says he is a vegan who purchased an Impossible Whopper [because of that zero percent promise](, only to learn later that the patty was cooked on the same broiler as regular meat burgers, and thus was actually “coated in meat by-products.” (Burger King has [declined to comment](.) Now, I’m as quick as anybody to condemn frivolous litigation, but if the allegations are true, Williams might well have a case. Vibrant free markets rely on truthful advertising, at least when the advertising influences the purchase decision. If a consumer happens to be vegetarian or vegan (or even, like me, pesce-pollotarian), the claim that the Impossible Whopper contains no meat will be crucial to the choice whether to give the sandwich a try. Read the [whole thing](. [Losing the Hong Kong That I Love]( — Shuli Ren [Don’t Buy the Conventional Wisdom on Impeachment]( — Jonathan Bernstein [I Just Translated ‘1984’ Into Russian. I’m Gasping for Air.]( — Leonid Bershidsky [This White Wisconsin County Has No Time for Trump]( — Francis Wilkinson [It's 2019, But It Sure Feels a Lot Like 1998 for Stocks]( — Nir Kaissar [Stop Treating American Expats Like Tax Cheats]( — Andreas Kluth [We Could Be Approaching Peak Beef]( — David Fickling [The Long Goodbye for Amtrak’s Restaurant on Wheels]( — Stephen Mihm [Alibaba's Hong Kong Share Sale Presents a $43 Billion Dilemma]( — Tim Culpan This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the 10 most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion published this week, based on web readership. [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]( [Twitter Share]( SEND TO A FRIEND [Share with a friend] You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022