Casey Neistat is 'mad' at Burger King for their marketing ploy
Burger King's brilliant marketing tactic was slammed by vlogger Casey Neistat for being "exploitative" — but he ended up promoting Burger King in his call out anyway.
"I don't like to be taken advantage of. I don't appreciate being manipulated," Neistat said in a video posted Tuesday. "Yet that is exactly what Burger King ... did to me."
Here's a rundown: About a week ago, Burger King started liking people's tweets from 2010, and Twitter users were thoroughly confused. Casey Neistat posted a screenshot of the recently liked gems, which brought even more attention to the weird likes.
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It was like finding out your crush accidentally liked an old Instagram photo during a classic late-night stalking session. Others quickly joined in to put Burger King on blast.
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Later that day, Burger King announced that it was also bringing back funnel cake fries from 2010.
It was a genius social media stunt.
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But something about it didn't sit right with Neistat — although he acknowledged how smart it was to get people talking about Burger King, he felt like the franchise was using influencers' clout for free.
“Influencers, we leverage social media to make money,” Neistat said. “Us influencers, we’re not brain surgeons or rocket scientists. We’re people of average intelligence. Because of that, it’s not nice to manipulate us into hawking your sugar-coated French fries.”
Comparing himself and other influencers to "little mice going for that cheese in the trap," Neistat called for Burger King give back to a charity.
"I already gave you the value by blasting this tweet out," Neistat ranted. "Maybe you can come back to me with an idea of how Burger King can do something to help one of these great organizations that looks after kids who have needs."
Burger King followed him on Twitter soon after he posted the video.
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Zoomph, an audience analytics platform, broke down exactly how much Neistat's tweets about Burger King were worth. They were valued at $83,200.
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And Burger King responded to Neistat's request to help out "kids who have needs," whatever that means.
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"I appreciate your social media marketing skills Burger King," Neistat concluded in his video. "Would love to work with you and put those skills to work doing something to help others."
Neistat then clarified that his anger toward Burger King "just a joke" and promised that "no one is manipulating anyone."
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Maybe the outrage was just a marketing scheme for both sides after all!
