As posted by: Wall Street JournalA friend in need is...a tenth of a burger?
Such is the calculus Burger King Holdings Inc. encouraged on Facebook, asking members of the social-networking site to "de-friend" 10 others in exchange for a free Whopper. (Facebook members can "friend" people -- invite them into their circle -- and also de-friend them.)
Now the fast-food chain has pulled the plug on the campaign, which launched Jan. 5 and was dubbed "Whopper Sacrifice," amid concerns from Facebook that it publicized severed friendships. The campaign, which featured tag lines such as "Friendship is strong, but the Whopper is stronger," grew rapidly on the site, as thousands of members jilted each other for burgers.
Each time someone de-friended someone else through a special application, Burger King published an update on both people's Facebook pages. That helped spread the word -- but ran afoul of the site's protocol.
A Burger King Web site, Whoppersacrifice.com, says, "Facebook has disabled Whopper Sacrifice after your love for the Whopper sandwich proved to be stronger than 233,906 friendships."
