For the Sake of Facebook Friendship

by J. Butler, Applecore Content Development Specialist


A recent Burger King viral marketing ploy lost steam before it ever left the ground—but not for lack of publicity.

The campaign, called “Whopper Sacrifice,” took the form of a Facebook application. In exchange for dropping ten Facebook friends, the ruthless user would get a coupon for a free Whopper. It was a cute, funny way to plump up Burger King’s brand, and more importantly, get their product in the hands of would-be customers.

But of course, that’s not the whole story. The campaign was taking off—a total of 233,906 users found themselves on the Whopper chopping block—when a little hitch appeared.

A key point of the campaign rested on informing the dropped friend that they had been “sacrificed” for the sake of a Whopper. Well, that was a clear breach of Facebook’s “de-friending” policy, which allows users to cull their friends list without fear that their former pals would be notified.

While Facebook only asked that the notification feature of the app be disabled, the agency (the controversial but attention-grabbing Crispin Porter + Bogusky) decided that the spirit of the campaign would be lost, and chose instead to shut down the whole works.

The Whopper Sacrifice website now reads that the "Whopper Sacrifice has been sacrificed." But clever Burger King has the last word: they’ve kept a feature that allows de-friending victims to strike back—with an official Burger King Angry-Gram.