« Win ad awards, attend weird gay sex parties | Main | Turns out it's not that great to work for HBO »
Facebook douses BK's 'Whopper Sacrifice'
Sounds like human sacrifice is back off the menu — for now, at least. Burger King’s tremendously successful Whopper Sacrifice application on Facebook was suspended today by the social network. “Facebook has disabled Whopper Sacrifice after your love of The Whopper sandwich proved to be stronger than 232,654 friendships,” says a note currently on the front page of WhopperSacrifice.com. Facebook has responded by saying the application is merely being tweaked for privacy reasons. Officials at the social network didn't like that it alerted people who had been "un-friended" as part of the application. "We encourage creativity from developers and brands using Facebook Platform," a spokesperson told the Inside Facebook blog. "But we also must ensure that applications follow users’ expectations of privacy." Hat tip to Dan Shust on Twitter for the tip. —Posted by David Griner |
|||
|
Filed under Burger King, Crispin Porter, Griner
|
| Tweet | Share |
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
If Burger King didn't get enough press before, they definitely will now!
http://thefutureofads.com/2009/01/09/burger-king-lets-people-sacrifice-friendships-for-whoppers/
Posted by: Cory O'Brien | Jan 14, 2009 4:23:46 PM
Talk about good bad press.
This is probably the best thing that could have happened to the application.
Posted by: Albert | Jan 14, 2009 4:59:40 PM
I wondered how this might interfere with the Facebook privacy settings since the news feed disclaimer states that no one will ever be notified when you de-friend them. I had assumed that BK just threw in a disclaimer saying people would be made aware.
Posted by: Joe | Jan 14, 2009 5:18:49 PM
Yeah, that or Whopper Sacrifice got hacked and people figured out how to get burgers for free...which actually did happen. Nice story though, and way to inadvertently promote Burger King...Objectivity rules! http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/about/whopper_sacrifice_hacked_105719.asp
Posted by: Dilly | Jan 14, 2009 5:39:33 PM
I never could get the hack to work. In fact, the first post on the hack website was a response from someone at refresh (the development group that build the app). I think Facebook just didn't like and found a way to kill it. Too bad, it was great and didn't seem to be harming Facebook in any way.
Posted by: josh | Jan 14, 2009 6:02:28 PM
This was such a brilliant application and it's a shame that Facebook has pulled it. It's clear Facebook didn't like the idea of people removing friends. I applaued BK for this very viral PR move. Long live the King.
Posted by: Craig | Jan 14, 2009 6:22:30 PM
ignore this story.
don't believe the hype.. by Burger King OR Facbook.
sheeesh!!
Posted by: Murph | Jan 15, 2009 2:35:48 AM
What in hell are you talking about, Murph?
Posted by: Dawn | Jan 15, 2009 12:50:15 PM
Don't believe everything you read! Check out the facebook your self.
Posted by: Carroll S | Aug 22, 2011 11:30:35 AM
Comments have been closed for this item.
