What Would You Do For A Whopper?

What would you do for a free Whopper? Would you break up with a friend? How about 10 friends? In 2009, Burger King ran a creative and controversial ad campaign that tested the lengths people would go for a free burger.

It was called the Whopper Sacrifice campaign. It asked users to unfriend ten of their Facebook friends for a free Whopper. While it may sound ridiculous, plenty of people were happy to receive free food for the sacrifice of a mere 10 friends. To make it even more humiliating, Burger King would take over your Facebook and post, "You liked a Whopper more than [name]" for each sacrificed friend. In the end, more than 60,000 Whoppers were given away, and 230,000 friendships were broken up in only 10 days. The campaign only lasted 10 days because Facebook shut it down, saying it was ruining its user experience.

While it is true that most of our social media friends are surface-level at best, the success of this campaign shows how little our culture values friendship. Yet friendship is one of the most essential needs of human existence. God spelled it out right after creation when he said, "It is not good for man to be alone..." Science agrees and has shown that true friendships have been shown to increase happiness, life expectancy, and mental health.

Tomorrow, we will look at the friendship of David and Jonathan. It is by far the most intimate friendship described in the Bible. Through it, we will dive deep into the importance and reasons for being a friend and pursuing friendship.