Less than 2 weeks after its launch on January 5, 2009, Burger King has called off their brilliant marketing campaign on Facebook. Burger King had created an application on Facebook which rewarded members for removing ten of their friends in exchange for a free whopper. Unlike a normal “un-friending” on Facebook, which never alerts the un-friended party, the dumped friend and everyone else is notified that they have been sacrificed “for a free whopper.” BK gets free advertising ten times over in exchange for a single whopper. Additionally, Facebook had threatened to kick BK off the site for violating its’ protocol, which it claims is to bring people together. BK responded by voluntarily cancelling the program, claiming Facebook had terminated the notification message and asked them to change the application. BK, having already received significant cheap advertising from the application, got to look principled when they voluntarily cancelled the program. Finally, they got significant free press coverage from the situation. Way to stick it to the man BK.
See related articles;
http://www.viralblog.com/social-media/whopper-sacrifice-burger-kings-viral-widget/
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Burger_King_Cancels_Facebook_Campaign_33514.html
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