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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As it turns out, a notification feature on the “Whopper Sacrifice” application that lets your friends know they have been replaced by a shot at a free hamburger violates Facebook’s privacy policy.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.