That Intrusive Burger King Advertisement Made Wikipedia Angry Too

Big Burger is watching, and now it pays the price. After a controversial Burger King ad that triggered Google Home devices went awry, the fast-food chain finds itself apologizing to another unlikely victim of the uber-invasive commercial: Wikipedia. Wikipedia editors are shaming Burger King for trying to sneakily edit the article on the Whopper to insert marketing-friendly language.

The original 15-second TV advertisement featured a Burger King employee asking for a little help from household smart devices by ending the commercial with, "Ok Google, What is a Whopper?" — which triggered Google Home and smartphones until Google put the kibosh on it.

Wikipedia editors discovered that the sneaky addition of commercial-ready ingredients was not originally there before the ad aired, and that the extra copy was edited by the "Burger King Corporation" and a username, Fermachado123, according to Consumerist. Fernando Machado is Burger King's global head of brand management.

In an open letter to Burger King, Wikipedia editors are demanding an apology, which you can see in its entirety here:

"We, the undersigned Wikipedia editors, have noticed that Burger King created an advertising campaign that involved the insertion of ad copy into Wikipedia by corporate employees. Burger King then broadcast an ad on television intended to activate Google Home to read text from the adulterated Wikipedia article in the TV viewers' homes.

Burger King broke several Wikipedia rules in the campaign. No editor may insert advertising, marketing, or promotional material into any article. Our terms of use require all paid editors to prominently post the fact that they are paid, the person or company paying them, and any other relevant affiliations. Our conflict-of-interest guideline strongly discourages editors with a conflict-of-interest from directly editing an article, though they may propose suggestions on the talk page."