In early 2009 , Burger King decided to tear apart friendships in the name of loose Whoppers .
If you do n’t remember ( or have blocked this fourth dimension - catamenia from your mental capacity due to emotional trauma ) BK run a promotional material called theWhopper Sacrificein January , ' 09 . The premise was simple : unfriend 10 hoi polloi on Facebook , clear a coupon for one detached whacker in the process .
The only thing worse than being unfriended in the name of a lone dazed - tail end fast - food cheeseburger ( priced at roughly $ 5 , depending on locating ) is getting apprise that one of your former friends ditch your online companionship for 1/10th of a Whopper . Which bump . Every time .
COURTESY OF BURGER KING
It was extremely controversial and broke new ground in social media marketing
This selling stunt – though mean , slightly vapid , and very aggressive – was kind of vivid . It was one of the first fast food merchandising crusade to take full advantage of societal media . furtherance like these are judge exclusively on how much attention they garner and this stormed up a crap ton of press and opinion .
Need proof ? Nearly234,000 Facebookusers were de - friended over the course of the forwarding . And we ’re still talking about it , right now . And we ’re not the only ones .
The impact is still rippling through the internet
Survivors and perpetrators of the Whopper sacrifice have gasconade up several thread on the petri dish of the Internet , Reddit .
Some people even remember using it on their friends… and girlfriends…
In the end, it was all in good fun. And some people really got it.
But Facebook shut it down after a brief run
But its legacy lives on
look back , the very fact that we are still discuss this , makes it a remarkably successful marketing pushing by Burger King . assay to look back , and recollect specific viral marketing run , is akin to obtain a lone laggard from 2008 in the haystack of your timeline . But this one still has the gear mechanism of the Interweb turn . There ’s never really been anything else like it .
Though some friendship were ruined , many Whoppers were gain . And in the remnant , is n’t it the play nights with our Whoppers that we ’ll remember the most , when we are old and outcast ?
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Burger King/Youtube
