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Facebook blocks Burger King's ditch 10 friends app

by Staff, Brand Republic 16-Jan-09, 09:15

NEW YORK - Burger King US has dropped its Whopper Sacrifice campaign on Facebook after the social networking site demanded it be altered, citing a violation of its privacy policy.

The promotion, which Burger King launched last week, rewarded Facebook users with a free Whopper coupon if they dumped 10 Facebook friends.

A total of 233,906 Facebook users found themselves "de-friended" in the name of a hamburger before Facebook requested the application by changed.

Usually when a friend is removed on Facebook, no announcement is made, however the Whopper Sacrifice application created an update to inform the deleted friend that they had been "sacrificed for a free Whopper".

Facebook objected to the de-friending notification on the grounds that it would disrupt users' privacy expectations.

A Facebook spokesperson said: "We encourage creativity from developers and brands using Facebook Platform, but we also must ensure that applications follow users' expectations of privacy.

"This application facilitated activity that ran counter to user privacy by notifying people when a user removes a friend. We have reached out to the developer with suggested solutions."

However, Burger King decided to pull the campaign rather than continue the application with restrictions.

A Burger King spokesperson said: "While Facebook was a great sport, they did ask for changes that would have resulted in a different approach to our application, counter to what we developed.

"Ultimately, based on philosophical differences, we decided to conclude the campaign and chose to 'sacrifice' the application."

The Whopper Sacrifice website now reads: "Whopper Sacrifice has been sacrificed."

The campaign was created by ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which raised controversy with its Whopper Virgins and hamburger scented cologne ads last month.

Comments

James Ghani - 16/01/2009

Crispin Porter + Bogusky 1 Facebook 0, How tedious and predictable. One would have thought Facebook would have seen this own goal coming the moment the Burger King PR machine sizzled into action. Would have been very interesting if FB had 'countered' the activity through use of imagination over legislation.

Charlie Guthrie - 16/01/2009

What a great response from BK. I expect the response from BK has been sat waiting to be delivered since the inception of the initial idea. We predicted Fb's response, therefore i expect BK will have done too.

Jon Jacob - 16/01/2009

Burger King spectacularly feed their own machine. Nice.

werwr wrwerwewr - 17/01/2009

Many these days are using social networks - too often I should say. But how many of them really know how to use such platforms and whether they work out that the time they spend on thinking of a strategy for such exercise is going to be productive. I have a short article written about this - I haven't expand my research as a few people discourage me and said what I'm saying is not going to be popular due to various factors.

zivai anesu - 19/01/2009

EK .i am doing my distertation on internet branding and part of that is to anylase and critise online campaigns and ads.i would love to see your paper if possible