Facebook Sacrifices Burger King 'Whopper' App
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Burger King's wildly popular Facebook application "Whopper Sacrifice," which rewards you with a free Whopper when you drop 10 friends, has been shut down. Social networking just got healthier.
Last week, Burger King announced
it was teaming up with social networking powerhouse Facebook for a
special promotion: If you removed 10 people from your network of
friends, the fast-food company would reward you with a coupon for a
free Whopper. The story became an Internet sensation, but it's only now
getting meatier.
As it turns out, a notification feature on the "Whopper Sacrifice"
application that lets your friends know they have been replaced by a
shot at a free hamburger violates Facebook's privacy policy.
"We encourage creativity from developers and companies using Facebook
platform, but we also must ensure that applications follow users'
expectations and privacy," the company said in a statement. "After
extensive discussions with the developer, we've made some changes to
the application's behavior to assure that users' expectations of
privacy are maintained. The application remains active on Facebook."
However, on the Whopper Sacrifice Web site,
a message above the image of a burning "Whopper Sacrifice" logo reads,
"Whopper Sacrifice has been sacrificed." Underneath, the company says
Facebook disabled the application after 233,906 people found a free
Whopper to be a stronger temptation than friendship. The ad campaign
was designed by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, after realizing how many
"friends" they had on Facebook.
