Blogger Kings Caught Telling Whoppers; BK VP, Spokesman Banished

by sean on May 22nd, 2008

(FranchisePick.Com) Corporate blogging shills and sock puppeteers take heed: In the blogosphere, honesty is the best policy.

Just ask former Burger King VP Steve Grover and former spokesman Keva Silversmith, who were recently fired for “sock puppetry”: online shill posting of pro-company comments under a fake identity. In the BK case, the two also indulged in a bit of slander against the farmworker advocacy group they’ve been battling, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Acccording to the Miami Herald:

Last week’s events come after months of fighting between Burger King and the coalition over the wages paid to Florida’s tomato workers. Burger King has refused to go along with a request to pay an extra penny per pound for tomatoes. That refusal has turned the company into the target of a barrage of protests and online attacks.

Although Burger King has been active in Internet marketing and social media from early on, somehow a few higher-ups didn’t get the memo that in fact, on the Internet, they can tell if you’re a dog:

Burger King Vice President Steve Grover learned that the hard way. He posted comments attacking the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker advocacy group, under his young daughter’s screen name surfxaholic36. The comments accused the coalition’s leaders of pilfering pay increases they had negotiated for migrant workers and “reaping millions in cash from unknowing or duped supporters.”

The fast-food chain fired Grover and company spokesman Keva Silversmith last week for violating the company’s Code of Business Ethics and Conduct.

”Unfortunately what they allegedly did was not sanctioned or authorized,” said Amy Wagner, Burger King’s senior vice president of investor relations and corporate communications.

Yes, you read that correctly. Burger King’s senior vice president of investor relations and corporate communications actually said “‘Unfortunately what they allegedly did was not sanctioned or authorized.’

It would have been OK if it were sanctioned or authorized? Somehow I think BK’s PR problems aren’t over just yet.

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