YouTube Influencer Casey Neistat Feuds With Burger King After Prank

An influencer gets tricked by the King

Vlogger Casey Niestat got annoyed at Burger King for tricking him into playing along with a stunt to help promote the brand’s funnel cake fries. To help publicize the fact that Burger King is serving the dessert for the first time since 2010, the burger chain’s official Twitter account started to hit “like” on tweets from influencers from that year, much to their surprise. Last week, Neistat tweeted a screengrab of the fresh likes on his old tweets and asked his followers, “Why is Burger King liking my 8 year old tweets?” Later that day, the official Burger King account tweeted, “Some things from 2010 are worth revisiting — like your old tweets. And funnel cake fries. Get them now for a limited time.”

Neistat responded to the stunt several days later with a seven-minute long rant on YouTube titled “Exploited by Burger King,” outlining how he fell for the prank and why he thinks it was a bad move. “Us influencers, we’re not brain surgeons or rocket scientists,” Neistat says in the video. ”We’re people of average intelligence. And because of that, it’s not nice to manipulate us into hawking your sugar-coated french fries.” In his rant, Neistat also suggests that, since he inadvertently helped publicize their desserts, perhaps the chain can now donate money to “one of these great organizations that looks after kids who have needs.”

The King responded by following Neistat and tweeting, “We’re ready to meet your ‘suggestions.’ Slide into our DMs real quick.” And now it appears that their brief feud has come to an end.

And in other news...

• Ariana Grande got a kanji tattoo and apparently didn’t realize that it actually means “charcoal grill.” (Or maybe she’s just really passionate about grilling?) [Boing Boing]

• Is Moe from The Simpsons based on a cranky New Jersey bartender who was the subject of several famous prank phone calls? [AV Club]

• Restaurants across the midwest are shutting down due to Arctic-like temperatures ushered in by the polar vortex. (If you order delivery in said weather, please tip generously.) [Nation’s Restaurant News]

• KFC is testing a Cheetos sandwich at select stores in the South that involves fried chicken, Cheetos, a “special Cheetos sauce,” and mayo. [Paste]

• Starbucks made its baristas hate Hamilton by playing the soundtrack to the musical over and over. [Grub Street]

• And finally, here’s Trevor Noah explaining why former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz would make a bad presidential candidate: