Burger King has released a Facebook application that basically encourages users to remove Facebook friends. If a person sacrifices ten of the, he gets a free Whopper. As a result, 233,906 friends were removed by 82,771 people in less than a week. However, Facebook decided to shut down the application, citing privacy issues.

According to the site, the application facilitated activity that ran counter to user privacy by notifying people when a user removes a friend. Furthermore, Facebook felt the application is going against what they stand for – connecting people.” As a solution, the site advised Burger King to remove that part of the app that notifies people they have been erased from someone's list of friends.

In response, a Burger King spokeswoman said the company decided to kill the campaign rather than make Facebook's requested changes, as she called the matter a philosophical difference. Burger King is not at its first attempt to promote its food through innovative ads. The company released last year a BK Polarizer widget that gauged people's political views.

Now, Burger King was trying to ride Facebook's popularity wave to connect with its primary customers, 18 to 34 year-olds who chow down on fast food burgers. Basically, BK wanted to see how much is a friendship worth compared to a..hamburger. The app also sent messages to deleted friends, telling them a certain person valued a Whopper more than their friendship.

It's an interesting idea, but some may argue that it's not that realistic, as real-life friendships are certainly more valuable than Internet-based friendships. So no one can actually be accused of leaving a friend for a Whopper, as they can probably add them back in no time.