A Russian woman is suing McDonald’s over a burger ad that she said caused her to break her fast during a Christian period called Lent, media reported last week.
“When I saw the advertising banner — I could not help myself,” Ksenia Ovchinnikova said in a court statement, according to the state-run TASS news agency.
The devout Orthodox Christian alleges that the mouthwatering ad featuring the fast-food chain's signature cheeseburger and chicken McNuggets compelled her to break her 30-day fast as well as a 16-year streak of staying away from animal products during the period leading up to Easter.
“I visited McDonald’s and bought a cheeseburger,” Ovchinnikova said of the April 2019 incident.
The Omsk native is seeking 1,000 rubles ($13.60) in moral damages for alleged consumer-protection violations and insulting her religious feelings.
The Russian Orthodox Church advised Ovchinnikova to “go to confession instead of the court,” a Moscow Patriarchate official told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency last Thursday.
Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky court has not yet set a date for the preliminary hearing over the unhappy meal.
