A burger chain in UK is asking vegans to eat meat

London: A leading burger chain in the UK has launched a new campaign to tempt vegetarians to eat meat, outraging vegans, forcing the company to apologise and take down some of the offensive billboards.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) has come under fire for a series of advertisements which vegans and vegetarians have branded "disgraceful".

The adverts, seen mostly at London Underground stations and trains, include taglines such as "Vegetarians, resistance is futile", and "You'll always remember when you gave up being a vegetarian", The Independent reported.

People have taken to social media to condemn GBK's ads, coining the hashtag #gourmetmurderkitchen to highlight what has been perceived to be a flippant attitude towards the consumption of meat.

" @gbkburgers utterly offensive advertising. Offending a huge customer base is a huge mistake gourmetmurderkitchen," one of the commuter who saw the advert vented to the burger chain.

"@gbkburgers well done on insulting your customers with your awful marketing," another tweeted.

"@gbkburgers Loved GBK but apparently we're not welcome."

However, GBK quickly responded to the flood of complaints, confirming they will be taking down "some" of the adverts.

"We've been reading the reaction to our latest advertising campaign and needless to say, we're quite taken aback.

"Our intentions were light-hearted and not meant to cause any offence, but clearly we have, and for that we apologise," GBK said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.

"Having read all your comments and messages, we've made the decision to take down some of the adverts," the post read.