The dumbest restaurant promotion you'll ever see

There are ways to get customers in the door in a way that the customer feels that they get a deal and you get additional business. In fact, there is no shortage of strategies to fill your bar or restaurant. In fact, we’re even giving away 25 free strategies here, so what in the world was the owner of Il Vinaio restaurant in Mesa, Arizona thinking when he decided to base his World Cup Promotional strategy around serving Lion Burgers to “anyone adventurous enough” to try them?

The owner says African lions are on the protected species list, but not endangered.

The restaurant ordered 10 pounds of African lion meat from a USDA-regulated, free-range farm in Illinois, which the owner says he researched to make sure they were humane. It’s mixed with ground beef, and the restaurant says it’s serving about 15 burgers a day.

And the result of his great idea? He has received a bomb threat and more than 150 e-mails from protesters demanding the meat be removed from the menu.

There’s a saying that “No press is bad press”, but maybe this crosses the line and even puts him, his staff and his customers in danger from animal rights protesters.

Would you run a promotion like this?