Why Having Its Twitter Hacked Could Be a Good Thing for Burger King [Updated]

Amazing. Photo: @BurgerKing/Twitter

For over an hour now, hackers have been running amok on Burger King’s twitter feed. They started things off, hilariously, by claiming that Burger King had been sold to McDonald’s, and changing the account’s name, banner, and logo accordingly. Then they tweeted allegations of drug use by Burger King employees, replete with photos. Since then, they’ve mostly been giving shout-outs to rapper Chief Keef and bragging about the hack. All in all, a social media disaster … right?

Probably! This is incredibly embarrassing. But think about it this way: Burger King had 84,000 followers when we checked in 30 minutes ago; it now has 108,000 and counting as word of the hack spreads. Are all of those people going to remember to unfollow once Burger King regains control? Absolutely not. And the next time Burger King tweets about some Whopper deal or some new chicken sandwich, a lot more people are going to see it thanks to this hack.

Photo: @BurgerKing/Twitter

Update, 1:16 p.m.: Burger King does not seem to agree about the benefits of being hacked, as its Twitter page now has an “account suspended” error message.

Update 1:53 p.m.: McDonald’s denies responsibility.

Twitter Hackers Sell Burger King to McDonald’s