(RADIO ALICE) – Pennywise the Dancing Clown has upped his game. Forget the children of Derry, Maine, he is now terrorizing the major corporation of Burger King Russia.

According to Newsweek, Burger King Russia has filed a complaint with Russia’s anti-monopoly business board to ban the popular horror film from screens because it is “free marketing for rival McDonald’s”.

The complaint, obtained by Russian magazine Vedomosti, argues that Pennywise “is an exact copy” of Ronald McDonald “including the color range and the [balloons] with which the clown lures children.”

A Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) spokesperson for told Newsweek:



“[T]he board would need to examine It and determine whether there was any undue product placement or advertising of McDonald’s that would fall foul of the country’s legislation.”

I guess Burger King Russia has not yet seen the film because there is nothing that says burgers and fries like a killer clown that can literally bite your arm off.

To quote the great Yakov Smirnoff, “In Russia, burger eats you.”

It is currently the #1 movie in Russia with a gross box office of $14 million.

Bradford Hornsby is an editor, music writer, web producer, and pop culture blogger for CBS stations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find him on Twitter at @bradfordhornsby.

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