Would You Pay $1,000 for a 'Proud Whopper' Wrapper?

To mark San Francisco Pride, the city's annual gay pride celebration last month, one of the Burger King locations along the parade route released a "Proud Whopper," the fast food chain's same old signature sandwich, but with one new feature: It was served up in a rainbow-colored wrapper emblazoned on the front with the phrase "Introducing the Proud Whopper" and on the reverse side with the witty tag line "We are all the same inside." A pretty cool idea, for sure. But cool enough for someone to dole out $1,000 to own one measly wrapper that came off a burger someone else ate? We'll find out soon enough.

An eBay member, who uses the handle bigrockandrollstar, has put the wrapper up for sale on the auction site and started the bidding at an aggressive $1,000.

"This is an authentic Burger King 'Proud Whopper' Wrapper in perfect condition.  This particular item was only sold at one location in San Francisco for the Gay Pride parade," the seller boasts in the description. "On the outside it reads 'Introducing the Proud Whopper' on the reverse side it says 'We are all the same inside.' You can not find or buy this historical memorabilia anywhere else. This is a true ONE OF A KIND."

And in case you were having trouble figuring out where you might put a piece of paper that once kept a fast-food burger warm, bigrockandrollstar has a suggestion: "Would look great framed on a wall!" And the seller also says he or she will donate half of the proceeds to an equal rights organization of the buyer's choice.

Whether or not the wrapper sells for a thousand bucks, the fact that a billion-dollar burger chain released a version of its best-known product to celebrate gay pride, even for a short time, is a good thing, as noted by many on Twitter this week.

After the June 28-29 San Francisco Pride celebration, the burger remained on the menu though July 3, and Burger King released a video shot at the 1200 Market Street store (see below). It begins with soundbites of passersby reacting to the introduction of the Proud Burger (everything from "I think it's great" to "I just don't really believe in the homosexual lifestyle" to "Do gay people even eat fast food?") and ends with customers digging in, only to realize that there is no difference between the Proud Whopper and the regular Whopper, thus "We're all the same inside."

Company spokesperson Adrianna Lauricella tells Yahoo Shine via email that through the digital film, "Burger King is broadcasting a widespread message in support of self-expression" and that "The film captures the brand's new 'Be Your Way' spirit." She added that all Proud Whopper sales would be donated to the Burger King McLamore Foundation for scholarships benefiting LGBT college-bound high school seniors graduating in spring 2015, but that it was too early to determine whether the Proud Whopper would ever be released again. A San Francisco Pride spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Of course, not everyone is supportive, and some took to Twitter to scold Burger King for the move. (Though the pro-BK tweets outweighed the naysayers.)

As for that wrapper, with five days left in the auction, there has yet to be a single bid, maybe because many of us believe we haven't seen the last of the Proud Whopper.