Burger King's Whopper of a problem: It got hacked on Twitter
Yael T. AbouhalkahForget the scandal over horsemeat at Burger King.
The hamburger chain on Monday was hacked on Twitter. Its a public relations problem for the company - as well as a a high-profile takeover of a U.S. company’s Twitter account.
(Update at 11 a.m. Tuesday.: Twitter suspended the Burger King account around 12:15 p.m. Monday. By Tuesday morning, it was back online with the Twitter handle @burgerking.)
Why is all this a big deal?
Partly because it appeared in the original hack that McDonald’s had taken over its bitter rival.
And the hacker, whoever it is, made disparaging comments about Burger King, its food and its employees.
The entire incident brings up more disturbing possibilities for all kinds of companies in the United States: How can they control their Twitter accounts when social media has become such an important part of marketing these days?
Consider: Twitter for the moment has suspended Burger King’s most immediate way of communicating with customers - its Twitter account, with about 100,000 followers.
Look for a lot of soul searching at Burger King and other businesses in the next few days.
Today’s Burger King Twitter hack job is fascinating. And, yes, very scary to U.S. companies.
Kent Mueller
3 months agoEvidently, Yael is the Star’s resident writer with a fascination on other company’s PR problems, whether real or not. Recent examples are a local brewery and the beef industry, and now Burger King. The prior wasn’t a PR problem for people who understood the issue. Evidently, the Star isn’t interested in helping people understand the issues. The same goes with the bogus comments and allegations about a certain beef product with regards to Lean Finely Textured Beef.
And now, supposedly, there is “soul searching” at Burger King. So, the result is the victim searching its soul, but no mention of the need to search for the criminal.
No company wants to go through that, but why is it “more bad news” that Burger King gained thousands more followers? Most everyone will know it the result of a hacker. I’m not saying it was good news, but it doesn’t have to be terrible news. It’s something to deal with.
The Star talks a lot about other companies, but one look at their press facility shows that they live in a government subsidized glass house.
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months agobut the star’s tif was a good tif Kent… Libs get good ones, others get bad ones…
libs are such a hoot…..
Larry Scofield
3 months agoKent, the LA Times, the Washington Post, ABC News, Huffington Post, even the Guardian in Britain - all are reporting the story right now. It’s news.
If you want to read stories soft on business, read the KC Business Journal - lots of smiling faces, cheap PR and promotion announcements. Apparently, you prefer that to hard news.
Kent Mueller
3 months agoLarry, I agree that is news, but hard news? Only, if the discussion is about the perpetrator.
And going soft on business? I agree we shouldn’t do that. But, why is this a time to do “hard” news? Burger King is the victim here.
Rachel Elaine Hines
3 months agoI’m a Wendy’s gal myself.