Friend or Foe (burger)?

Ad giant Crispin Porter + Bogusky has Burger King going viral and it’s got me thinking.

Whopper Sacrifice is a new Facebook application that puts your “fair-weathered web friendships to the test.” Here’s the deal: If you delete 10 of your Facebook friends, you will be rewarded with one of Burger King’s signature burgers.

Is there a catch? Not aside from the fact that a message will be sent to your former friend informing them that you valued a burger more than their friendship. A public update is also posted on your wall saying “Bob sacrificed John for a free burger…” This is how the application has gone viral, as 10 people see it, then 10 more, and so on and so forth. Up to this moment, over 225,000 friends have been sacrificed. Pretty cruel, right?

Pretty perverse? Worse than when Jerry favored a cup of soup over his girlfriend in the famous Seinfeld episode “Soup Nazi?” Well, not really.

According to the blog Buzz Canuck, the average number of friends that users are connected to on Facebook is 164. Do you really stay connected with 164 friends, even on an annual basis? Probably not. Do you regularly converse with 375 friends, the number I have? I could have, like, 20 Whoppers and still have pseudo-friends to spare. I know, I’m a monster.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky knew that most Facebook users have a boatload of friends that they aren’t even really “friends” with and that deleting them for a beef patty wouldn’t be that gut-wrenching. Ultimately, I think the simple concept was a pretty great idea and a clever way for Burger King to jump on board the social media bandwagon.

Now, I’ve only been “a pony” for a little over a week, but I’m already well-aware that us peeps at Fast Horse like our media pretty interactive and our treats even tastier. We are also loyal, however. We wouldn’t dare delete our colleagues as friends on Facebook, stop following each other on Twitter or deny looking one another’s pictures on Flickr over a snack. Not ever. Or would we? Hold on a second.

Sorry, I had to ask a colleague to not take that Surdyk’s cookie from another co-worker’s mouth. Now, The Surdyk’s Cookie (or even better, Soup) Sacrifice — that would be the ultimate test for the ponies.