Thursday, January 15, 2009
Fun and Games Ask Not for Whom the Angry Whopper Tolls, Eric Crafton: It Tolls for Thee
Posted by Carrington Fox on Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 7:00 AM
Is there any truth to the rumor--perhaps spawned by this week's Bites post about Burger King's Angry Whopper--that opponents of the English Only referendum are using the BK site's Angry-Gram function to bombard the online bunker of English Only advocate Eric Crafton at eric.crafton@nashville.gov with salvos of angry beef?
A clever, if absurd, viral marketing tactic, the Angry-Gram works sort of like a Mad Lib, in which you fill in the blanks of a form letter to tell someone how they bug you. Your concerns are then expressed, in the true spirit of elevated discourse, by an indignant animated hamburger. To wit:
"Dear __________.
"I've had it up to here with you. Your ________ gives me a conniption. And I'm so fed up with your ________. How about when you _______? What a loser. You make me wanna go ballistic.
Yours angrily. _______"
We find it hard to believe the integrity and purpose of the Angry-Gram could be subverted into a medium of social change. After all, the Angry-Gram template is limited to a vocabulary of common complaints, including nail-biting and facial hair. Consequently, the Angry-Gram can't convey what opponents say are the deleterious effects of proposed English Only legislation--everything from decreasing convention business to painting our city as a backwater.
Still, we found plenty of language in the Angry-Gram's drop-down menus that could conceivably send the message:
Eric
Xenophobia
Alien paranoia
Argue for no reason
Have any cholesto-revolutionaries out there actually tried this? If examples indeed exist, please let us know. The War of Burger Aggression may have arrived on our doorstep.
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