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I’ll warn you right now, this is a rant. And like all (good?) rants, it’s kinda one-sided. So feel free to disagree. Feel free to prove me wrong… that’s what comments are for.

Cholesterol-and-sodium mecca T.G.I. Friday’s found themselves in the frying pan (if not the fire) this week for their “Woody” campaign – and I’ve chosen the word campaign deliberately. If you’re not familiar with the program, Friday’s is offering free burgers if their spokes-character Woody gets half a million fans on Facebook. They’re pitching the offer on their site, in their TV spots and with Facebook ads. Must have seemed like a good idea (to someone) but now bloggers are asking, so what? And what’s next?

Clearly, Friday’s took a page out of Starbucks’ (face)book after the coffee giant grew the largest Fan community by offering members free pastries. Spike Jones of Brains on Fire calls efforts like these “social media bribery” and rightly points out that they have more in common with old school churn-and-burn promotional tactics than proper commitments to building meaningful, mutually beneficial, long term relationships between a brand and it’s customers.

Oy.

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