Workers returning to their offices are treating themselves to business lunches with colleagues, and one restaurant has developed an ingenious way to shift those costs back to employers.

As part of a questionable promotional stunt, Canadian restaurant Good Fortune Burgers renamed its menu items after office supplies, including the ‘Wired Headphones with Mic’ (a veggie burger) and ‘Mini Dry Erase Whiteboard’ (a chicken burger).

While it may seem a confusing move at first, the new names serve a clever purpose – enabling customers to expense their meals back to their employers under the guise of buying work-related goods.

The campaign originally ran in February, but has recently gone viral as users on Twitter and Facebook share screenshots of the restaurant’s Uber Eats profile and tongue-in-cheek Instagram posts.

“You won’t believe it’s veggie. Your boss will believe they’re headphones. We won’t tell anyone,” one such post said.

“Imagine if you could expense ‘office supplies’ that were really burgers. Oh wait,” said another.

 

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A post shared by Good Fortune Burger (@goodfortuneburger)

Many lauded the company’s creative approach and out-of-the-box thinking, though some challenged whether the campaign crossed ethical (and even legal) lines by encouraging hungry Canadians to defraud their bosses.

Good Fortune Burger director of operations Jon Purdy rejected those concerns however, telling Toronto-based blog BlogTO the campaign was meant as a lighthearted joke.

“There’s no malice intended in it, it’s all just fun and games,” he said.

“We just wanted an opportunity to put a smile on some people’s faces and have them have a little bit of a giggle.” 

Sources

• The Age, Bookings up for restaurants as Melbourne Money scheme returns
• The Age, Caviar martinis, duck and Dom Perignon as the power lunch strikes back
• News.Com.Au, Canada’s Good Fortune Burgers offers work expenses hack
• blogTO, Toronto restaurant naming menu after office supplies so you can expense your meals