Burger King's prank net neutrality video shows what happens when customers are charged $26 for faster Whopper service
- Burger King released a pseudo-educational prank video that shows what would happen if the company repealed "Whopper neutrality," the Burger King equivalent of net neutrality.
- In the prank, the company adopted tactics that consumers fear internet service provider will use with the repeal of net neutrality, like throttling internet speeds for certain websites unless customers paid more.
- Customers were visibly and audibly outraged.
- This is Burger King's first public show of support for net neutrality.
Fast food chain Burger King released a hilarious prank video on Wednesday that shows what would happen if the restaurant industry mimicked the potential effects of the FCC's recent repeal of net neutrality.
In the world of the video, Whopper neutrality was repealed. "They voted on it," a Burger King cashier tells an outraged customer.
In the video, customers unaware of the prank were alarmed to suddenly find that their usual Whopper sandwich orders would be made at a slower "mbps," which Burger King twists to mean "making burgers per second." In the real world, Mbps is usually a measure of internet speed, and stands for "megabits per second."
Check out the video:
"The repeal of Net Neutrality is a hot topic in America, but it can be very difficult to understand. That's why the Burger King brand created Whopper Neutrality, a social experiment that explains the effects of the repeal of Net Neutrality by putting it in terms anyone can understand: A Whopper sandwich," writes Burger King in the video's description.
In the video, customers paying the minimum amount for their Whoppers needed to wait 15 to 20 minutes unless they paid dramatically more - from $13 for the fast mbps, to $26 for the hyperfast mbps options for a single Whopper order. A single Whopper usually costs around $4.19. Back in reality, only high-end restaurants charge anything close to $26 for a burger.
"Are you kidding me? You paid $26 for a Whopper?" a woman asked a man - perhaps an actor - who opted for the hyperfast mbps option. The Burger King cashier then answers the woman's question, "he's higher priority, so..."
Unwitting customers were visibly confused and upset. "Oh my God, this is the worst thing I've ever heard of," exclaimed an angry customer.
One of the fears expressed by backers of net neutrality is that the repeal opens the door to allow internet service providers (ISPs) to charge customers more for faster access to certain websites and services - similar to the scenario satirized by Burger King's video.
For example, without net netrality rules, an ISP could hypothetically charge Netflix customers more if they want to stream videos at higher resolutions, like 4K, which requires faster internet speeds and more bandwidth than regular 1080p video streaming.
The repeal of net neutrality rules has yet to officially go into effect, with 30 United States senators backing a plan to block the FCC's move via congressional action. And the Internet Association, a trade group representing online companies including Facebook and Google, said it planned to sign onto an expected lawsuit seeking to block the repeal through the courts.
This seems to be Burger King's first statement on net neutrality. In the video's description, Burger King describes the reasoning behind speaking up: "This effort aims to help people understand how the repeal of Net Neutrality will impact their lives. The Burger King brand believes the Internet should be like the Whopper sandwich: the same for everyone."
We've reached out to Burger King for additional comment and will update if we hear back.