Some people will do anything for a quick fix. Fast-food restaurant chain Burger King has developed a Facebook application that gives a user a coupon for a free burger if they ditch 10 friends on their profile list.
The marketing campaign, dubbed the “Whopper sacrifice”, prompts users to download an application to their Facebook profile. The user then chooses 10 friends to eliminate from their “friends” category, and is then rewarded with a coupon for a free burger.
But while Facebook usually does not announce to a user if they have been “un-friended”, the Whopper application proudly boasts: “You have been sacrificed for a free Whopper.”
While most Facebook applications emphasise relationships between friends, the Burger King application is among the first to promote division as a marketing tool. But it seems to have worked, with over 221,831 Facebook profiles de-friended for a coupon.
Smart Company is the leading online publication in Australia for free news, information and resources catering to Australia’s entrepreneurs, small and medium business owners and business managers.
