Wednesday, January 28, 2009

BK is 'brandjacked'

The Twitter voice of Burger King, it turns out, was a fake. A wag named Caleb Kramer acknowledged on his blog today that he'd "brandjacked" the chain's kingly icon and posed as a true spokesperson for the fast-food giant through his posts as theBKlounge.

Full disclosure: I was one of the people who were taken in.

At least I wasn't alone. TheBKlounge has 1,500 people who "follow" it, or receive every message that is posted under that name. Often, the posts sounded as if they might've really come from BK's Miami headquarters. There was the cease-and-desist controversy, for instance, where theBKlounge sent a tongue-in-cheek notice to a Twitter denizen called WhopperVirgin to stop using that name. The MTV humor in the back-and-forth seemed to perfectly fit the off-beat approach BK has taken in its real marketing efforts.

In 'fessing up today, Kramer noted that he'd garnered press around the world. He explains how he familiarized himself with the brand's advertising and posted accordingly. Needless to say, it was a convincing performance.

What's left unanswered is why BK let him continue the ruse for two months. Maybe there was some behind-the-scenes communications with lawyers that Kramer has yet to disclose.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No there were no lawyers contacting me. I did things in a way to avoid that.