Hackers Drive Through a Pair of Brands on Twitter

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By: Mike Bush

Last week was a tough week to be a brand on Twitter. The accounts for both Burger King and Jeep were taken over by hackers, and…well…hackers enjoyed themselves.

Burger King’s Twitter account started showing McDonald’s logo along with a few McDonald’s specialties. And, it included a bunch of crude tweets. Jeep was next, “announcing” on Twitter that it had been sold to Cadillac, and of course, spewing out more crude tweets.

A few folks have openly questioned whether or not these brands did this on purpose. Mashable reports that Burke ring actually received 5,000 new followers within 30 minutes of the hack. And while reactions seemed to be all over the place, there were plenty of Hamburgler references to go around. However, the same hacking group is claiming credit for both online attacks.

A few “Kudos” should be handed out:

First to McDonald’s for the way they handled Burger King’s troubles brilliantly:

We empathize with our @burgerking counterparts. Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking.
— McDonald's (@McDonalds) February 18, 2013

It would have been easy to poke fun, but they took the high road while also pointing out that this could happen to anyone (and denied any sort of culpability).

Second, to Jeep and Burger King, who had some fun with the aftermath:

@burgerking Thanks BK. Let us know if you want to grab a burger and swap stories - we'll drive.
— Jeep (@Jeep) February 20, 2013

Finally, while our sister pub Digital Pivot might disagree, I think Twitter itself deserves to be recognized a bit, since in both cases, the hacking didn’t last more than a few hours, and both brands have had their accounts restored.

At the end of the day, this probably wasn’t fun for anyone in communications for either company. But, we can look at how it was handled and keep it in mind as a case study of how to effectively handle a Twitter hacking.

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About the Author

Mike Bush is a PR and Marketing freelancer with more than a dozen years of experience in the field. Find him on and connect Twitter @mikebush or at www.mikebush.nyc.

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