More Facebook Unfriending

Douglas Quenqua (NYT, registration may be required) has contributed to the well-worn meme of Facebook unfriending. This article focuses on the recent Burger King "Whopper Sacrifice" campaign, which featured Facebookers culling ten of their "friends" for a Whopper.

Unlike the normal process of unfriending that sends no specific message of the cut, the "Whopper Sacrifice" promotion actually sent messages to the new un-Friends, informing them of their comparative value.

While the campaign was quickly abandoned, some interesting issues remain.

Brian Gies, a marketer who helped launch the campaign, reflects on the changing nature of friendship in the online era: [snip from the NYT piece] “It seemed to us that it quickly evolved from quality of friends to quantity,” he said, “which was interesting to us because it felt like the virtual definition of a friend became something different than the friends that you’d want to hang out with.”

Read the entire article: Friends, Until I Delete You