Burger King edits Wikipedia for use in BK's new TV ad?

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Burger King is unveiling a horrible, genius, infuriating, hilarious, and maybe very poorly thought-out ad today that’s designed to intentionally set off Google Homes and Android phones.

The 15-second ad features someone in a Burger King uniform leaning into the camera before saying, “OK Google, what is the Whopper burger?”

For anyone with a Google Home near their TV, that strangely phrased request will prompt the speaker to begin reading the Wikipedia entry for the Whopper. It’s a clever way of getting viewers’ attention, but it’s also a really quick way of getting on viewers’ nerves — just look at the reactions people had when ads accidentally triggered voice assistants in the past.

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And then there’s the bigger problem: Google gets its explanation of the Whopper from Wikipedia. And as we all know, anyone’s free to edit Wikipedia.

It actually looks like Burger King went and edited the Whopper entry ahead of this ad being run. For almost a decade, Wikipedia’s page for the Whopper began with more or less the same sentence: “The Whopper sandwich is the signature hamburger product sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King and its Australian franchise Hungry Jack's.”

But last week, that first line — the only line that Google Home reads — was changed to: “The Whopper is a burger, consisting of a flame-grilled patty made with 100 percent beef with no preservatives or fillers, topped with sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, and mayonnaise, served on a sesame-seed bun.” That certainly sounds like ad copy.

And all evidence suggests Burger King is behind the edit. The line was first added by someone with the username “Fermachado123,” which appears to be the username of Burger King’s marketing chief, Fernando Machado. He uses the same name on Instagram and an almost identical name on Twitter.

A press representative for the company stopped responding when asked about the edit. Wikipedia specifically asks that editors “avoid shameless self-promotion” while making changes, and this very much seems to break the rule.