Did Burger King Really Just Issue A C&D Through Twitter?
from the it-takes-two-hands dept
Now that it's legal to serve papers to someone through Facebook, Burger King has apparently sent a cease and desist via Twitter to the user "whoppervirgins" for an unauthorized use of trademark. "Whopper Virgins" is the latest multi-million dollar ad campaign from Burger King to hit the airwaves, featuring documentary-like ads depicting Hmong, Inuit and Romanian villagers eating burgers for the first time. Sure, "theBKlounge" account may not really be Burger King, or the C&D could actually be an in-character joke. But, really, did nobody at the agency think to simply grab the twitter account "whoppervirgins" to begin with? From the start, this campaign seems to have attracted criticism. In addition to flak for being "corporate colonialism," "cultural bullying" and "the worst kind of Ugly Americanism," this campaign has been ridiculed for not doing enough good SEO to support the campaign. In any case, perhaps Burger King purposely planned these strange moves, in order to generate fodder for bloggers to chew on, since in all honestly, I am really, really craving a Whopper right now.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: ad campaigns, cease and desist, whoppers
Companies: burger king, twitter
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and I LOOVVEE lamp
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The BK Lounge?
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Re: The BK Lounge?
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Re: The BK Lounge?
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well
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This has to be fake!
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Re: This has to be fake!
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I just looked at the clock myself to see if I could make it to BK before they close. Sadly, it is two minutes after closing. So I'm out of luck for the evening.
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If there ever was a reason to be called a"piece of meat"
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I guess you'll tell me that people still think Pizza Hut make good pizzas...
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Since this has gotten silly and off topic...
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Re: Since this has gotten silly and off topic...
Honestly, if I lived in a mud hut and someone brought me to a large US city for the first time, free of charge, I'd testify that a poo pattie is tastier than chocolate.
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Re: Re: Since this has gotten silly and off topic...
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User Name Check
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I don't even know where to start
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woppervirgins
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Poisoning People is Adverstising?
Diabetes, obesity, heart disease - that's what's in store for these new "consumers" in a generation.
BK should be ashamed, however since they need to keep poisoning new consumers to maintain their financial position in the market, I'm sure that shame isn't part of the corporate culture.
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I didn't think so.
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UNFAIR
It is time we require to join the American Association of Process Servers, and to disclose to their customers (Twitees?) that the personal information they provide can and will be used to assist in seeing that they are served with process.
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Re: UNFAIR
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Re: Re: UNFAIR
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Burger King induced Diarreha
Eating just one high fat burger will give them terrible diarreha.
Their stomachs and intestines will hurt for days.
I find it laughable.
This harkens back to the Got MilK add featuring African Americans. Something like two-thirds of African American adults are lactose intolerant. Got Diarreha?
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Getting off topic for a minute
Imagine a restaurant from Korea comes to the US and asks Americans to decide which is better: flame-grilled something (which represents the "Whopper") or fried something (the "Big Mac")? Either way, we'd be asking what the **** is this food you're trying to serve me.
What if they they only told us what the "something" was *after* we ate it... and it turned out to be dog or cat or guinea pig... and that your reaction was being filmed for a TV commercial to show that you liked their version the best?
Do the "whopper virgins" even have a concept for eating cows? Do the Inuits even know what cows are? And did Burger King make sure that these peoples don't have any religious issues with eating beef, like Jews and Hindus?
I just hope this whole "whopper virgin" campaign was staged with actors and Burger King didn't actually subject native people to greasy, fatty fast food and to the corporate-legalese contracts that they probably had to sign so Burger King could avoid any lawsuits when the people get sick.
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Re: Getting off topic for a minute
The acting parts were outsourced to India
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not the first time
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