The dark secrets of Whopper Sacrifice

SAN FRANCISCO--"I don't know how many of you actually got sacrificed out there, but condolences to you," said Matt Walsh, head of the Interaction Design department at ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky, as he surveyed the audience at his Friday morning talk at the Web 2.0 Expo.

(Credit: Burger King)

CP&B, after all, was the creator of the "Whopper Sacrifice" phenomenon, a Burger King ad campaign on Facebook that promised a coupon for a free hamburger if participants deleted 10 people from their friends lists on the social network. It was a wild success: the Facebook application was installed nearly 60,000 times in a matter of days, nearly 20,000 Whopper coupons were sent out, and well over 200,000 Facebook friends were deleted. Facebook members even created unofficial groups, offering to let other members add them as friends and then delete them for Whopper Sacrifice purposes.

But Facebook disabled the campaign after ten days, claiming that it was a violation of user privacy because Whopper Sacrifice notified friends if they had been deleted. "(It) challenged the very concept of Facebook," Walsh said. "Whopper Sacrifice had been sacrificed." In an ironic twist, that just led to even more buzz for the campaign.

Walsh took the stage at the Web 2.0 Expo to talk about what he saw as the secret sauce (ha, ha!) behind Whopper Sacrifice's success: what he calls "deceptive simplicity."

"It's a very, very simple idea," Walsh said. "And it's something that to a user is a very easy message to communicate. Sacrifice ten of your friends, get a free Whopper. It's got kind of the ultimate elevator pitch."

But the decision-making process behind the campaign was more theoretical, almost anthropological. Walsh said that another core element of Whopper Sacrifice's popularity was the fact that it tapped into a real "tension" in digital culture--how social networking has changed our ideas of what friendship means.

"For so long, friendship in the social space has kind of been a form of social currency," Walsh explained. Social networks' "entire system is kind of dependent on you aggregating as many of your friends as possible in the network, ballooning as quickly as possible, but at the end of the day that's all fine and good in the ramp-up when everything is novel...quite a few years into the social-networking arena now, there's really a question of what is friendship in the 2.0 world?"

Combining that provocativeness with a simple, no-brainer campaign is what Walsh said made it work.

"You're going to be faced with a lot of questions, and you're going to be faced with a lot of what-ifs, and you're going to be faced with a lot of bells and whistles added on," he suggested to marketers in the audience. "Whopper Sacrifice was one that went viral with pretty much zero media budget. We had a few small media banners on Facebook itself, but outside of that...we had a press release and that was it. It blew up because it was something that really resonated with people."

He also acknowledged that not all the feedback was glowing.

"Some people thought it was a little brutal because we did send notifications," Walsh admitted. "If I defriended you, you would get a message saying that you were worth less than one-tenth of a Whopper."

[andrew.mager]

I got my burger coupon and put it in the CNET kitchen, and it was gone faster than I could uninstall the application.

[jezzur]

Whoppers are pretty tasty. I would only lose friends if the Whopper had both cheese and bacon... no, make that 2 lots of bacon.

[dean.collins]

I'm surprised people felt hurt that they were worth less than 1/10th of a whopper.

When was the last time you spoke with some of your 'virtual' friends?


Dean

[JayWes]

Lets see, a Whopper is about $2.00; so a friend is only worth 0.20? A firend in atime of need is a friend indeed; a friend any other time is worth less then a quarter. Well at least it is more then a plug nickel.

Very well written article. I haven't done much with facebook but I've eaten my share of whoppers. Now if they just move this to twitter...

[SlimGem]

I love that picture. Anyone ever see a Whopper that looked like that? In reality they appear to have been carried in someone's back pocket for a week. I haven't eaten there since they ruined the fries with that paste flavored coating.

[aka_tripleB]

Yes, I have. But you'll never get me to admit to making them or ever have worked at Burger King. Unless you're talking about how the tomatoes look like chili peppers and the meat actually looks like the "meat" for the vegetarian burgers. Then, no, I haven't seen a Whooper that looks like that picture.

[EthanLeduc]

Ugh, it's so true, their fries are atrocious.

[Hunnter2k3]

Shame, the Burger King in my town is fantastic.
Well, the fries aren't as good as they were pre-2003 (ish)
I still like them though.

Now it's really awkward, i prefer McDonalds fries and Burger Kings burgers.
Double-dating, t'is my dirty sin.

[PiiSPii]

Everything is fine where I live. They've never put a coating on the fries around here. Two of my friends work there, and they say the only thing that's changed is the push to up-sell.

Then again, I live in Canada, so it might be different elsewhere.

[James Anderson Merritt]

Actually, carrying the burger in someone's back pocket for a week is an important and proprietary part of the "flame-broiling" process. Really adds to that signature BK flavor. Don't spread it around or the other chains will start doing it and BK will lose their competitive edge.

[Hunnter2k3]

You know, i was always wondering why they mentioned the whole "it notifies people they have been deleted" and it being against their Privacy Policy...
HMM, apparently checking your own friends list is now "illegal" on Facebook!
Possibly the lamest excuse to remove something from anywhere, ever.

... if only i hadn't "deleted" my Facebook before it was added.

[karpenterskids]

I LOVED the Sacrificing promotion.
If they ever have anything similar to that again...count me in. :)

[waynedunham]

Sheese, the Big Mac is the one with the "Special Sauce", the Whopper just has Mayo, and ketchup, hence no "secret sauce". He should have been boo'ed from the stage and flogged in the alley. ;) Way to NOT know your client.

[aSiriusTHoTH]

Good Lord, people are still killing themselves on greasy fast food? Wow.... happy to the United States of Fat People

[toosday]

Those folks at CP&B are amazing! They know how to get you talking about a brand (i.e. the current Hulu ad campaign).

Even if it's not always in approving ways, they will put a company's name on your lips and generate buzz (i.e. Burger King's "Whopper Sacrifice" and "Subservient Chicken", Microsoft's "Gates/Seinfeld" and "I'm a PC").

Oh, and Caroline, as for your "secret sauce" joke.... I'm shaking my head in disapproval :)

[lilykudrow]

Demise Due To Poor-Revenue in Web 2.0
Facebook backs down on privacy terms
Read more about it here:
http://techunits.com/content/list_all/86/facebook

[stevepoppe]

Hey Caroline. This promotion was so successful because it touched "lovers" and "haters." Lovers of whoppers (I'll take mine with extra pickles). And haters of the excesses of Facebook friending. Win Win!

[Kewpa]

This is a good example of a great ad campaign for a poor product.
They probably paid a couple dollars for the whole deal... but they had to waste the idea on
Burger King. Shame.

[TheRoboticDan]

Did anyone get their coupon? It's 5 months later and I'm still waiting on it. Can't find any chatter online about anyone receiving one either, except the first comment in on this post and I think its a joke.