Burger King Asks: Who Would You Toss for a Sandwich?
Burger King wants you to vent your anger, and they’re willing to give you a free Angry Whopper for doing so. The catch is that you have to “sacrifice” 10 of your Facebook friends to get it.
The “Whopper Sacrifice” Facebook app, which launched on Wednesday, asks users to choose 10 Facebook friends they won’t mind losing from their profiles. Once they’ve put those 10 expendable friends to the torch—literally, their profile photos can be set ablaze—Burger King will send a coupon redeemable for a free Whopper at participating restaurants.
The Facebook app promotes the chain’s new limited-release “Angry Whopper,” made with jalapenos, spicy onions and special “angry sauce.”
The campaign, conceived by Burger King agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky and executed by Refresh Partners, uses the tag line “Friendship Is Strong, but The Whopper Is Stronger.” That’s also the gist of the notification sent to those 10 friends ejected from the user’s account: that basically he or she gave them up for a sandwich.
Users who download the Facebook app will also find a meter installed on their profile page that tracks their progress toward their free Whopper, with a line of Xed-out friends’ photos, and asks “Who will be next?”
The usual Facebook procedure for removing friends doesn’t notify them of their deleted status. Friends ejected via the Whopper Sacrifice app can re-apply for friend status. They are also invited to download the Facebook app and delete 10 friends of their own.
While some commentators have suggested that the notification might dampen use of the app or that it might actually be used for cyber-bullying, in fact the campaign seems to take a light-hearted approach toward the problem many social network users encounter in culling their growing online friend lists.
At press time the application had been downloaded more than 55,000 times. It is being advertised within Facebook with display ads. Users can also get to the application via a Web site.
Burger King has also been promoting the Angry Whopper with another Web site that lets users vent their supposed rage at friends and enemies. Visitors can pinpoint three things they object to in someone’s manner, appearance or behavior, choosing the comments from a drop-down list of selected names and personal flaws. They enter their e-mail address and that of the intended target of their wrath.
When it’s open, the rant is delivered by a flash-animated Whopper, complete with intricate but innocuous zingers (“You’re seedier than an umbrella in a rainstorm on a tree-lined street.”)
The Angry Whopper will be on the Burger King menu through March 30, 2009, in single, double and triple versions.
