A NEW ADVERTISING campaign from fast-food outlet Burger King appears to have backfired spectacularly, after Wikipedia users sabotaged the entry for its signature sandwich to say it contains “cyanide” and “rat meat”.
The advert begins with an employee holding a Whopper burger, staring directly at the camera and saying: “You’re watching a 15-second Burger King ad, which is unfortunately not enough time to explain all the fresh ingredients in the Whopper sandwich.
But, I’ve got an idea. Ok, Google, what is the Whopper burger?
Asking this question is designed to activate any voice-controlled Google or Android device, to search for the Whopper on the search engine, and then read out its Wikipedia entry.
In theory, it would mean that people would be directed to information about the burger online, and a voice would read out that description.
However, as Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, the entry for the burger briefly contained descriptions such as “rat meat” and “toenail clippings”.
Wikipedia has now temporarily suspended the ability to edit the product’s entry on its site.
The advertisement eliciting a response from Google devices was short-lived, however, as they stopped responding to the advert a few hours after it was launched.
TheJournal.ie tested this out and, while you can ask the question yourself, Android and Google devices do not respond to the advert.
Burger King president José Cil told Buzzfeed News that the company “saw it as a technology to essentially punch through that fourth wall”, and added that it was a “cool way to connect directly with our guests”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say