'Order from McDonald's': Burger King urges UK customers to support its rivals ahead of a 2nd COVID-19 lockdown

• Burger King customers should order from McDonald's, Taco Bell, and KFC to support both employees and restaurants, the fast-food chain's UK arm said Monday.
• Burger King UK published the tweet three days before England was to enter a second lockdown, with cafés, bars, and restaurants forced to end dine-in services. They will still be able to offer takeout.
• Burger King often mocks its biggest rival, McDonald's, in its marketing campaigns — but the tweet said that restaurants "employing thousands of staff really need your support."
• The industry body UK Hospitality has said that the hospitality sector "was hit hardest and first" during the first English lockdown and that it fears the second lockdown will be even worse.

Burger King has told its UK customers to order from McDonald's, Taco Bell, and KFC to protect jobs in the food sector.

England is set to enter a second lockdown on Thursday, after the country's COVID-19 cases surged in October. All dine-in services will have to shut until at least December 2, along with nonessential businesses, but restaurants and cafés can still offer takeout.

In a tweet Monday, the UK arm of the burger chain name-checked some of its fast-food rivals and urged people to order from them to support the industry.

"We never thought we'd be asking you to do this, but restaurants employing thousands of staff really need your support at the moment," the tweet said.

"Getting a Whopper is always best, but ordering a Big Mac is also not such a bad thing," it said.

The hospitality sector is the UK's third-largest employer, according to the industry body UK Hospitality, and many workers in the sector were placed on furlough in March as restaurants, cafés, and bars were forced to close during lockdown.

"The sector was hit hardest and first," UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls said when the latest lockdown was announced, and "will hurt for months and years to come."

"The costs to hospitality businesses of a second lockdown will be even heavier than the first, coming after periods of forced closure, the accumulation of mass debt and then significantly lower trading due to the restrictions of recent weeks," she added.

Burger King is no stranger to mentioning its rivals on social media. McDonald's is its usual target: As a Halloween publicity stunt, the chain introduced voice-recognition software in some restaurants that made Ronald McDonald appear in restroom mirrors if a customer said "canceled clown" three times.