Altyrian View

According to Macworld, a Burger King ad campaign that had Facebook users “sacrificing” friends has been canceled. Seems that users that dropped 10 Facebook friends would get a free hamburger. What’s more, everyone that got dropped would get a nice little note saying that they had been dumped for a burger. As you might guess, Facebook didn’t see the humor. After trying to work things out, Burger King pulled the campaign, but not after the sacrifice of a quarter of a million friends.

Last night I attended a fantastic presentation by Peter Shankman in which he mentioned one of the problems with Facebook: Everyone is equal. I have more than 200 friends of Facebook. Some I see everyday; some I’ve met once and might never meet again. I like them both, but I am more interested in some friends than others. Like Shankman, I wish that there was a way to “rank” friends. Those friends that I want to watch their feeds every and those that I can follow every once in a while.

Imagine a day where the Whopper was no longer sold at Burger King. What would customers say? What would they say if they got a Big Mac instead of a Whopper? Burger King’s new viral campaign asks those questions with some fantastically quotable results. I think this is a great campaign that will get some great coverage. Here’s the full video taken from WhopperFreakout for your enjoyment:

Well, it took a little over three months, but as we suggested in August, a company has taken the software development kit for the xbox 360 and developed a game to promote its product. Yup, the great minds at CPB have developed a game for their client Burger King.

I have no idea if the game is any good, but I must say, the commercials are really funny. Here is a preview of the game available only at the restaurant.

Broadcasted on: Oct. 10, 2005

Today’s interview is with Dan Robinette, Creative Director for Altyris Advertising. Dan discusses the latest trend in advertising, viral and guerilla marketing tactics.

• CPB (Crispin Porter + Bogusky), established the entertaining website subservientchicken.com as a viral marketing and branding project for Burger King.

• Burger King, through use of the website, indirectly gets a one-on-one with the consumer.

• Viral and guerilla marketing requires finding creative methods of spreading the message rather than spending money on traditional print ads and billboards.

Listen to the full broadcast on our iTunes Podcast Marketing Watch.
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