Last week the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court approved a lawyer’s application to serve legal documents via Facebook. Crown Solicitor Simon Moore, SC, said it made perfect sense. “In civil courts, there has always been the facility to apply for substituted service in cases where a defendant may be difficult to find or evidence suggests they are deliberately evading documents being served on them.”
On the same day, another legal first appeared to take place in the United States when a Twitter account allegedly operated by Burger King issued a cease and desist order to another user for “UNAUTHORIZED USE OF TRADEMARK.”
If this were an official order (which I’ll get into in a bit), I have a hard time believing it would stand up on its own. If you look at the Facebook example, it clearly states that the alternative route was selected because the defendant could not to contact by any other normal method. They had tried letters, phone calls, etc. and all had been effective. Then, as a final effort, they went to the court to have the Facebook route approved. Before a C&D order over Twitter could hold any water, I imagine it would need to pass through the same types of legal channels and only be used as a last resort.
Users Swathed in Secrecy
The two accounts in question are @theBKlounge and @whoppervirgins. Let’s dig into some stats on each:
First Tweets
The first tweet from @theBKlounge rolled out on November 14, 2008, telling followers about new gear at the Burger King Studio, described as “part art gallery, part think-tank with a dash of Mad Scientist’s experiments thrown in for good measure.” That site is legit and the tweet would lead you to believe the account was in official connection.
The first tweet from @whoppervirgins came on December 15, 2008, personifying the Whopper and its wait to have its underside charbroiled. This was a humorous spin, but again, nothing to make people think it wasn’t official. The date the account was created seems to throw a flag, as the Whopper Virgins campaign actually launched a few weeks prior.
Profiles
The @theBKlounge username is a toss-up. If you search for any information on “The BK Lounge,” almost everything you pull up is associated with comedian Dane Cook, who wrote a song by the same time. Cook used the term to “dress up” his job at the fast food joint. Using this as a username could show BK stepping up the plate and acknowledging a piece of user generated content, or it could be more evidence against the account being official.
Aside from the username, the account has a nice Burger King image set for a background and profile colors to match the official corporate color scheme. The user’s location is stated as worldwide, illustrating the brand’s global presence, and the bio for the account is written with a sense of humor, something the brand is known for. At this point everything still looks legit.
The @whoppervirgins name is appropriately in line with the campaign, but the account still has the default profile assigned to every new Twitter user. No colors have been changed, no profile information has been added and the only sign of customization is the Whopper image as an avatar. Based on the intense design and perceived strategy behind WhopperVirgins.com, it seems strange the account is still using the default design.
The Meat of the Tweets
With a month more of activity on Twitter, @theBKlounge certainly has a leg up on @whoppervirgins in terms of the amount of content posted. @theBKlounge spends a lot of time of time conversing with other users, but also spits out some content which makes you wonder if there is really a BK employee behind the wheel. Things like:
A Mysterious Situation
After the C&D went out and Twitter users and bloggers caught wind of it, the event spread like wildfire. There was no response from @whoppervirgins, but @theBKlounge offered a few tweets shedding additional light on the situation (and offered more proof to me that the account isn’t officially run by Burger King).
If the C&D were intended to be official it wouldn’t have gone out over Twitter. Second, the issuing user wouldn’t have joked about it afterwards. Third, @theBKlounge wouldn’t “let [@whoppervirgins] off this time.”
Each of these actions, in addition to the other notes pointed out earlier, clearly identify the @theBKlounge and @whoppervirgins accounts as unofficial representations of the Burger King brand, most likely being run by enthusiastic fans wanting to have an impact.
The Tweet Blogged ‘Round the World
Whether or not the accounts are official, this entire event will likely play out well for Burger King. As many have suggested on Twitter and in blogs, the situation almost smells of a PR stunt for publicity, but I just can’t believe that something like this could have been orchestrated by corporate types. Burger King has done well in the past with viral types of campaigns, but they’ve all still been largely based on TV ads and/or website tie-ins. None (that I’m aware of) have played so largely in social media.
Also, as a result of this activity, Burger King will likely be getting some great placements in the search engines, something Ad Age (@adage) openly criticized them for not having with the launch of the Whopper Virgins campaign. Because of the way blogs work, many of these posts about the C&D will bubble up to the front pages, causing more people to get caught up in the scenario and leverage the ever-powerful word of mouth.
A Plan for Burger King
Before this gets too far out of hand, Burger King must get on Twitter and join the conversation. Here are the steps we would take:
- Get the @burgerking account (we have a great article explaining how to get brandjacked accounts on Twitter back).
Though Burger King likes to use the BK monniker, that account (@bk) is already in use. - Contact the operators of @theBKlounge and @whoppervirgins.
If they are willing to cooperate, consider working with them to adopt the accounts under the brand’s umbrella. - Set up keyword queries to listen for mentions of brand names and products.
- Join conversations and provide value where possible.
- Hire Microblink to help incorporate Twitter into their overall marketing strategy.
Though the number of Twitter users pales in comparison to other social networking sites, its users can make a tremendous impact on the web.
[Twitterrific bird image © Iconfactory]









