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Hackers Turn Burger King’s Tweet Stream Into A Whopper Of A Mess

77 points by coloneltcb 14y ago

Lightning 14y ago
Twitter suspended the account: https://twitter.com/burgerking https://twitter.com/burgerking
mkr-hn 14y ago
It jumped by 30k followers in a handful of minutes. Huge increases like that seem to trigger an automatic suspension.
- kintamanimatt 14y ago
  The cynic in me would love to see this as a savvy marketing strategy! First time I've thought of BK in a long time, so I guess it worked! They should capitalize on their new dose of attention by giving away a "hacked" coupon on Twitter to get people into stores!
oh_god_why 14y ago
Ugh. Why would anyone waste their precious time creating an advertisement for McDonald's? Unless...
- chc 14y ago
  Alternate way to frame the question: Why would a prankster alter a company's Web presence in a way that suggests they have experienced a hostile takeover by their biggest competitor?
gfodor 14y ago
So these guys now are at risk of going to prison in order to create an advertisement for McDonalds and lots of buzz around Burger King. Somehow I don't think they thought this one through.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
  - jlgreco 14y ago
    If they are in America, they are certainly at risk of going to prison, and international boarders have provided less safety in recent years than one may hope.
- tatsuke95 14y ago
  The fact that we can talk casually about people going to prison for what is essentially cyber-vandalism is so ridiculous I don't know what to think. These are weird times.
  - GauntletWizard 14y ago
    Punishment should be proportional to the crime. When you do graffiti on the side of a Burger King, it's a few hundred dollars and two man-days to clean it off. In proportion, the fine should be 2-3x that cost, and maybe 2-3 days in county jail for the offenders. With the economy of internet scale, that ramps up fairly quickly. How many people saw that vandalism? With your local McDonalds, it's probably a few hundred, a thousand on the outside. How many people follow @BurgerKing? It's probably more on the order of millions. Even using a logarithmic scale, there's an arguement to be made for months in prison. The cost of the offsetting advertising campaign? Who knows; They say "There's no such thing as bad publicity", but certainly some money is going to be spent cleaning up this mess; Probably again 2-3 orders of magnitude more than the cleanup of the local franchise.
    - ihsw 14y ago
      The problem with applying that logic to internet-related crimes is that it's impossible to measure the number of people affected. Your hypothetical '2-3 orders of magnitude' is spurious reasoning as well, the effect this unfortunate event had on the brand is also impossible to measure. I'm not denying that the punishment should be proportional to the crime but by what proportion should we calculate against? The total number of followers that @burkerking has? That number multiplied by the number of fraudulent tweets? Nobody should go to jail for 'tarnishing' some marketing material.
zecho 14y ago
Part of me thinks this was another viral Crispin Porter + Bogusky advertisement.
- sheraz 14y ago
  I don't think CPB has had BK for a while [1]. Though I agree this could have been in Crispin's spirit. [1] - http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/burger-king-and-its-ad-agency-part-ways/ http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/burger-king...
Steko 14y ago
Best thing that could happen to Burger King with the horse whoppers thing in the news.
mkr-hn 14y ago
McDonalds responded: https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/303575465237549056 https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/303575465237549056
- bmuon 14y ago
  I love their use of "counterparts". It almost reads as "archenemies".
comrh 14y ago
Yay Hacktivism! Oh wait, this is childish and pointless.
mnicole 14y ago
The worst part about all of this - to me, anyway - is that they had the opportunity to be clever and funny about it and could have left it at the McDonald's-buys-BK PR stunt with continuing professional-sounding tweets, but instead they wasted their hijack by turning it into the exact flood of childish dribble that people expect when they think "hacker".
- joezydeco 14y ago
  It sure appears that BK has been asleep at the wheel for a while now, especially after dropping their most recent ad firm. You're not going to get an Oreo/Poland Spring style response out of this. I don't get what's happening to BK overall. Every McDonalds around me is either being torn down and rebuilt or fully remodeled with new facilities and new tech, while one BK in town has suddenly closed and the other has been decomposing from the inside out for the last 8 years.
  - stephengillie 14y ago
    BK has been bought and sold many times over the years. Most recently, it was sold to 3G Capital from a group of Bain Capital, TPG Captial, and Goldman Sachs Funds. [1] Meanwhile, McDonald's spent over $1B to remodel their stores [2] [1] http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1025990/ http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1025990/ [2] http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-05-06-mcdonalds-revamp_n.htm http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-05...
    - joezydeco 14y ago
      Good links, thanks. I have to admit some bias in my original post since I'm indirectly doing some engineering work for McD's at the moment. What's admirable about the corporation is that they seem to be constantly planning upgrades to both the facilities and the equipment inside it. I also work near a number of their test sites so I'm seeing things that are continually being changed and played with. The drive-thrus in my area have leader boards to show which store has the fastest service. They've gamified fast-food!
- 14y ago
Mithrandir 14y ago
The account is suspended now. Here's what it looked like: Before: http://archive.is/Fg9Ss http://archive.is/Fg9Ss After: http://archive.is/BsLQe http://archive.is/BsLQe
- camfex 14y ago
  Intermediate: http://archive.is/96qTG http://archive.is/96qTG
madao 14y ago
I wish these guys would just go away, they should be using their time to change the world, not troll it. half the shit they do is completely pointless. Sure it may bring some notice to public but honestly it dies down just as fast as it gets put up.
- mhurron 14y ago
  Bringing laughter to people is changing the world. There is no greater calling then teh lulz. I know I got a kick out of it.
monochromatic 14y ago
Did Burger King do something to piss people off, or is this just random vandalism?
- mhurron 14y ago
  Depends on how you like horses.
  - lostlogin 14y ago
    Now that's funny. British?
    - mhurron 14y ago
      No, I had to learn how to be funny the hard way.
paragonred 14y ago
I really dislike the use of the word "hacker" as it is used by most people. It's just semantics, but it makes me sad that when most people think hacker, they think these types of activities.
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  Which is why I like the work hackivist as it captures the spirit of that activity. Of course it doesn't work with criminal (hackinal?) which some people use 'cracker' (as in criminal hacker).
olefoo 14y ago
So the real WTF here is why Twitter doesn't support TFA, at the very least for verified accounts; and definitely for anyone spending money on promoted tweets or trends. It's certainly something they could add for select accounts, and it's something I wish they'd add as an option for regular accounts. Just think, a single text message and a "You are logging in from a new computer/ipaddress/application combo so please enter the code we just sent you". Would have saved considerable embarrassment all around.
habosa 14y ago
This is funny, but I really wish these Anonymous guys would either disappear or get 'real' jobs using their skills to build useful things. They're really hurting the image of what it means to be a programmer/tech enthusiast these days. Whenever I tell people I'm a software engineer they say "Can you hack? Hack my computer!" and I just have to shake my head.

77 points by coloneltcb 14y ago

Lightning 14y ago

Twitter suspended the account: https://twitter.com/burgerking https://twitter.com/burgerking

mkr-hn 14y ago

It jumped by 30k followers in a handful of minutes. Huge increases like that seem to trigger an automatic suspension.

kintamanimatt 14y ago
The cynic in me would love to see this as a savvy marketing strategy! First time I've thought of BK in a long time, so I guess it worked! They should capitalize on their new dose of attention by giving away a "hacked" coupon on Twitter to get people into stores!

oh_god_why 14y ago

Ugh. Why would anyone waste their precious time creating an advertisement for McDonald's? Unless...

chc 14y ago
Alternate way to frame the question: Why would a prankster alter a company's Web presence in a way that suggests they have experienced a hostile takeover by their biggest competitor?

gfodor 14y ago

So these guys now are at risk of going to prison in order to create an advertisement for McDonalds and lots of buzz around Burger King. Somehow I don't think they thought this one through.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- jlgreco 14y ago
  If they are in America, they are certainly at risk of going to prison, and international boarders have provided less safety in recent years than one may hope.
tatsuke95 14y ago
The fact that we can talk casually about people going to prison for what is essentially cyber-vandalism is so ridiculous I don't know what to think. These are weird times.
- GauntletWizard 14y ago
  Punishment should be proportional to the crime. When you do graffiti on the side of a Burger King, it's a few hundred dollars and two man-days to clean it off. In proportion, the fine should be 2-3x that cost, and maybe 2-3 days in county jail for the offenders. With the economy of internet scale, that ramps up fairly quickly. How many people saw that vandalism? With your local McDonalds, it's probably a few hundred, a thousand on the outside. How many people follow @BurgerKing? It's probably more on the order of millions. Even using a logarithmic scale, there's an arguement to be made for months in prison. The cost of the offsetting advertising campaign? Who knows; They say "There's no such thing as bad publicity", but certainly some money is going to be spent cleaning up this mess; Probably again 2-3 orders of magnitude more than the cleanup of the local franchise.
  - ihsw 14y ago
    The problem with applying that logic to internet-related crimes is that it's impossible to measure the number of people affected. Your hypothetical '2-3 orders of magnitude' is spurious reasoning as well, the effect this unfortunate event had on the brand is also impossible to measure. I'm not denying that the punishment should be proportional to the crime but by what proportion should we calculate against? The total number of followers that @burkerking has? That number multiplied by the number of fraudulent tweets? Nobody should go to jail for 'tarnishing' some marketing material.

zecho 14y ago

Part of me thinks this was another viral Crispin Porter + Bogusky advertisement.

sheraz 14y ago
I don't think CPB has had BK for a while [1]. Though I agree this could have been in Crispin's spirit. [1] - http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/burger-king-and-its-ad-agency-part-ways/ http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/burger-king...

Steko 14y ago

Best thing that could happen to Burger King with the horse whoppers thing in the news.

mkr-hn 14y ago

McDonalds responded: https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/303575465237549056 https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/303575465237549056

bmuon 14y ago
I love their use of "counterparts". It almost reads as "archenemies".

comrh 14y ago

Yay Hacktivism! Oh wait, this is childish and pointless.

mnicole 14y ago

The worst part about all of this - to me, anyway - is that they had the opportunity to be clever and funny about it and could have left it at the McDonald's-buys-BK PR stunt with continuing professional-sounding tweets, but instead they wasted their hijack by turning it into the exact flood of childish dribble that people expect when they think "hacker".

joezydeco 14y ago
It sure appears that BK has been asleep at the wheel for a while now, especially after dropping their most recent ad firm. You're not going to get an Oreo/Poland Spring style response out of this. I don't get what's happening to BK overall. Every McDonalds around me is either being torn down and rebuilt or fully remodeled with new facilities and new tech, while one BK in town has suddenly closed and the other has been decomposing from the inside out for the last 8 years.
- stephengillie 14y ago
  BK has been bought and sold many times over the years. Most recently, it was sold to 3G Capital from a group of Bain Capital, TPG Captial, and Goldman Sachs Funds. [1] Meanwhile, McDonald's spent over $1B to remodel their stores [2] [1] http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1025990/ http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1025990/ [2] http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-05-06-mcdonalds-revamp_n.htm http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-05...
  - joezydeco 14y ago
    Good links, thanks. I have to admit some bias in my original post since I'm indirectly doing some engineering work for McD's at the moment. What's admirable about the corporation is that they seem to be constantly planning upgrades to both the facilities and the equipment inside it. I also work near a number of their test sites so I'm seeing things that are continually being changed and played with. The drive-thrus in my area have leader boards to show which store has the fastest service. They've gamified fast-food!
14y ago

Mithrandir 14y ago

The account is suspended now. Here's what it looked like: Before: http://archive.is/Fg9Ss http://archive.is/Fg9Ss After: http://archive.is/BsLQe http://archive.is/BsLQe

camfex 14y ago
Intermediate: http://archive.is/96qTG http://archive.is/96qTG

madao 14y ago

I wish these guys would just go away, they should be using their time to change the world, not troll it. half the shit they do is completely pointless. Sure it may bring some notice to public but honestly it dies down just as fast as it gets put up.

mhurron 14y ago
Bringing laughter to people is changing the world. There is no greater calling then teh lulz. I know I got a kick out of it.

monochromatic 14y ago

Did Burger King do something to piss people off, or is this just random vandalism?

mhurron 14y ago
Depends on how you like horses.
- lostlogin 14y ago
  Now that's funny. British?
  - mhurron 14y ago
    No, I had to learn how to be funny the hard way.

paragonred 14y ago

I really dislike the use of the word "hacker" as it is used by most people. It's just semantics, but it makes me sad that when most people think hacker, they think these types of activities.

ChuckMcM 14y ago
Which is why I like the work hackivist as it captures the spirit of that activity. Of course it doesn't work with criminal (hackinal?) which some people use 'cracker' (as in criminal hacker).

olefoo 14y ago

So the real WTF here is why Twitter doesn't support TFA, at the very least for verified accounts; and definitely for anyone spending money on promoted tweets or trends. It's certainly something they could add for select accounts, and it's something I wish they'd add as an option for regular accounts. Just think, a single text message and a "You are logging in from a new computer/ipaddress/application combo so please enter the code we just sent you". Would have saved considerable embarrassment all around.

habosa 14y ago

This is funny, but I really wish these Anonymous guys would either disappear or get 'real' jobs using their skills to build useful things. They're really hurting the image of what it means to be a programmer/tech enthusiast these days. Whenever I tell people I'm a software engineer they say "Can you hack? Hack my computer!" and I just have to shake my head.