Thursday, January 08, 2009

The Tough Part Is Deciding Who to Pick

Burger King: Unfriend 10 Facebook friends, get a free Whopper

When will the madness end at Burger King?

The publicity department at Burger King (NYSE:BKC) is at it again with another campaign that is sure to disturb many — including your best friend. The nation’s No. 2 burger chain is offering Facebook users a coupon for a free Whopper if they “unfriend” 10 people from their social network database.

After reading about the crazy campaign on The Hamburger Today blog, I immediately went to Facebook to see if the program was legit.

Sure enough, I spotted Whopper Sacrifice challenge. Here’s an excerpt from the ad copy:

“What would you do for a free WHOPPER? Would you insult an elected official? Would you do a naked handstand? Would you go so far as to turn your back on friendship?”

It goes on to say that if you “sacrifice” 10 friends on your Facebook profile, you’ll get a free Whopper.

But wait, it gets better. When you initiate the program, the application pulls up the mug shots of all your friends — taunting you to make picks as they stare you in the face.

Then the big warning comes: Once you select someone to unfriend, the program will — insert gasp here — notify that person that you have sacrificed them for a burger! (And, by the way, ‘friend’ is now a verb, as my Facebook friend June keeps telling me.)