by Andrew Lennon | Editor | The Daily Anchor
Since January 5, Burger King has been running their “Whopper Sacrifice” ad campaign on Facebook, in which members of the social networking site can get a free whopper if they “de-friend” 10 of the people on their friend list. It’s a creative way to hit the elusive Millennials and has helped to clear out many a person’s bloated friend list (I probably have 20+ Facebook “friends” who I’d cut for a medium fry.) The campaign was largely successful not only because of the 233,906 friendships that were revoked in exchange for a Whopper, but because of the buzz generated around it… my, I think this qualifies as buzz marketing.
Just 10 days after the campaign began, though, Burger King has canceled the campaign in response to pushback from Facebook, which said the campaign violated the sites protocol by announcing the severed friendship on users’ profile pages.
Facebook found no fault with the human-for-Whopper trade itself, but rather was concerned for the de-friended friend who found out their friendship was worth a hamburger, albeit a large hamburger. And you tell me there’s no such thing as corporate empathy!? Alas, Burker King pulled the campaign after Facebook canceled the notification feature.
The Whopper Sacrifice campaign was created by Burger King’s agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, owned by MDC Partners, and Refresh Partners, and comes on the heels of several provocative campaigns for the No. 2 burger brand. In December, it conducted taste tests against McDonald’s Big Mac with so-called “Whopper virgins” with no fast-food exposure, and this month it is airing commercials about the “Angry Whopper,” raised by a supposedly sadistic farmer. (WSJ)
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I’m actually really disappointed that I missed out on this opportunity. Perhaps I will de-friend 10 friends in defiance of FB’s decision…