Before i say anything: Burge King Burgers is better than McDonalds Hamburger (you can hate me now)
Anyway, first i disagree that an ad like this would have more impact nowdays if it were run on Old media. The possibility of something generating buzz and discussion is a lot bigger on the New Online Media. Less and less people everyday watch old traditional media.
Also, click share, your friend that wasn't watching TV at the moment the ad were shown now have acess to it. It is a lot more powerful.
But as an ethics point of view, i don't see any problem in a company use its "money power" to bring to the general population a topic that needs to be discussed into the light.
In a similar way, a big cosmetic company here in Brazil once runned an ad that showed all kinds of personal romantic relationships persons (Hetero, Homo, trans, poly) sharing gifts on our valentine's day.
Yes, the main objective of the ad were to sell more cosmetics to all kind of persons, but, it also brought the sexuality subject and racism on everyone talks. A topic that usually is not discussed.
So yeah, its an ad. They want to sell more. But isn't it better that some ads go beyond the "sell more" part?