Search results matching tag 'Burger King'

Facebook prematurely ends Burger King Whopper Sacrifice campaign

2371004 — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:15:00 GMT

Facebook has pulled the plug on Burger King's clever Whopper Sacrifice application, citing privacy issues, after the app was used 233,906 times by 82,771 users in less than a week.

The application, created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, allowed users to delete 10 of their friends from their friend list in order to get a free Whopper.

It was also, frankly, brilliant.

As part of the campaign, the application also notified the deleted friend that they had been removed from their users friend list using the Whopper Sacrifice app, something that Facebook doesn't do.

Facebook stopped the campaign for this reason, saying the notification of the de-friending act breaks its privacy rules.

But really, it was the whole crux of the application, what a slap in the face for BK and CP+B.

Especially CP+B.

Finally, when a decent, humorous and clever campaign is developed for the Facebook platform, Facebook shuts it down.

Ouch. Isn't this supposed to be the future of advertising?

Hopefully the company has some more ideas up its sleeves, as they have been going from strength-to-strength (in my opinion) with their previous burger-scented cologne and Whopper Virgins campaigns. Chin up!

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Um, Crispin Porter, do you want fries with that Cyber Lion?

2154489 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:15:00 GMT

No doubt in my mind that another slew of awards will follow the launch of the most on brand, site specific app I’ve seen (probably ever). Whopper Sacrifice is such a fun, fresh concept it makes me want to go actually buy a burger in tribute.

"What would you do for a free WHOPPPER? Now is the time to put your fair-weather web friendships to the test. Install WHOPPER Sacrifice on your Facebook profile, and we'll reward you with a free flame-broiled WHOPPER when you sacrifice 10 of your friends."

As one of the 736 friends of the agency’s popular interactive ECD, I fully expect to be axed. Jeff, just remember we knew each other way back when online advertising was all about optimizing gifs. This app is so clearly spot on and wicked funny that it is even getting what I’d call *real* PR, meaning mass coverage well beyond the expected marketing rags and ranty ad blogs. Way to make your client famous. This story’s everywhere, from the HuffPost to the NY Daily News.

Plus, crossposted on Brand Street.

Okay amigos, delete me on Facebook, but please follow me on twitter

BBC launches Mr Riley’s meaty & sweety pie range

322703 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:25:00 GMT

Those watching Mischief on BBC last night (Britain’s Really Disgusting Foods) hopefully weren’t eating their evening meal in front of the TV. Mr Riley’s Pies may well come packaged to look tasty but when you discover what’s in them, even given the marketing spin, they are not so appetizing. The show that featured Steve Phillips (Spring Research), Brooke Dalton-Brewer (Spinnaker) and myself was actually great fun to make.

There’s nothing like a light hearted look at the darker side of marketing. Though I’m sure many packaging agencies are livid that advertising people exposing some of their devious techniques. Give it a personal identity, old fashion packaging for a traditional look, farm images for credibility and the master stroke – dolphin friendly. Northern comedian and anarchist, Alex Riley may not be to everyone’s taste (just like his dad’s pies – yes that is his dad on the packaging) but he makes it lot more interesting that those old stuffy BBC presenters who take it all too seriously.

Dressing up in a wet suit and filling it with water certainly makes the point about how much water is added to chicken! The programme format was simple - Alex goes in search of the most disgusting thing that can be legally sold as food. He discovers manufacturers have ingenious ways of transforming poor ingredients into something that looks and tastes like good food. Corn starch (wallpaper paste) is one common ingredient. He unearths hidden horrors, from substitute cheese to beef connective tissue and many other horrors. And that’s the legal stuff, imagine what’s not legal that gets sold? The programme set out to expose just how crap some food we’re sold can be.

What actually goes into those pies is disgusting though we all ate them and strangely they actually tasted ok. I had some in my office for weeks and as a sign of just how little real food was in them it took that long for them to go moldy. It was inevitable that the programme would set up big names and Brooker certainly got a pasting. Though I do think they were unfair to one of the big agencies (no names as I’m sure they’d prefer no further publicity).

Asda, by contrast, I thought came our really well. Thankfully, we were in on the humour rather than the victim and I do think that humour is a great way to make a point. However, there is a serious ethical and moral point – as an industry how do we cope with selling products we know are crap? Not so bad when everyone knows it - no one is trying to pretend KFC uses the finest quality freedom farm chickens. We buy it knowing exactly what it is so at least there’s an honesty about it.

But some of those pies and pasties sold as authentic quality foods aren’t. Sweets with chemicals in. Foods packed full of water or other substances. Kids snacks with e numbers? Apparently, Kellogg’s artificial Maple Syrup had the greatest number of e numbers in. Where do we draw the line? When is it acceptable and when isn’t it? Should we have a moral code in the ad business? Some agencies refuse to work on cigarette accounts (AMV), others on oil companies. With the great debate about marketing to kids, is there an ad agency who is prepared to say no to marketing crap snack food? When we did a research group with kids we asked them who are the bad brands - Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, Burger King, petrol companies and a few others were mentioned.

Although it’s easy to take pot shots at these ethically demonised brands (I could write a lot about the good work that McDonalds, Coke and Pepsi are doing) there are many worse ones that look like angels, selling us hidden horrors. Why are chocolate, biscuit and crisp manufacturers not demonised? The programme, like advertising will be tomorrow’s chip paper - no one questions how crap fish and chips are do they? It’ll have its 15 minutes of fame around the water cooler and then a few hours later we’ll all be eating Cornish pasties again and diving into a kebab after the pub.

It’s ironic that with the credit crunch sales of McDonalds has gone up – so much for the health conscious consumer. But more frightening than the revelation about ingredients (or the fact there’s a glass full of fat in every kebab) is the ad they made themselves. It’s a lesson in why you should never do it yourself and should always get experts to write your ads!!

There’s another episode that features a few adland faces in too – look out for the one on data – Your Identity For Sale (BBC Three Sept 11th). Rebecca Wilcox, who’s a lot more attractive than Alex Riley, clocks up over 1500 ads she’s exposed to in one day and reveals the abuse of data and a few revealing facts about Facebook.