The 6 Greatest Hashtag Fails
Hashtags are commonplace on social media, and are fast becoming a huge part of 21st century life. Yet despite their prominence some people still don’t get it quite right.
Here are 6 examples of people and companies who made a right hash of their Twitter hashtags.
#susanalbumparty
Perhaps the best known Twitter hashtag fail, #susanalbumparty generated a lot of sniggers, as well as a lot more publicity for Susan’s album than would perhaps otherwise have been garnered. Instead of being read as ‘Susan’s album party’ the hashtag was interpreted as something slightly more unsavoury by the majority of twitter users.
#Aurora
In the wake of the mass shooting at a cinema in the town of Aurora, Colorado, the hashtag #aurora was trending. In what serves as a lesson for everyone to check the route of hashtags they tweet, online fashion store Celeb Boutique used the opportunity to promote their dress named Aurora.
#nowthatchersdead
When Baroness Margaret Thatcher died in April 2013, it sparked a hashtag for speculating what Britain would be like now that the former Prime Minister had died. However the hashtag caused some confusion and panic amongst another aging legend’s fans; reading #nowthatchersdead as ‘now that Cher’s dead’, rather than the intended ‘now Thatcher’s dead’.
#myNYPD
In an effort to reach out to the community, the New York Police Department started a hashtag #myNYPD and asking followers “do you have a photo with a member of the NYPD? Tweet it and tag us #myNYPD”. But in one of the biggest PR disasters ever, the campaign had the complete opposite effect than intended, instead inciting a torrent of images of alleged police brutality.
#McDstories
In a similar vein, McDonalds put out a tweet asking people to respond with their favourite stories of their experiences at McDonalds, using the hashtag #McDStories.
As you may imagine (and would expect McDonalds to have anticipated), there then came a flood of stories shedding McDonalds in a less than favourable light, with stories of food poisoning and foreign objects in burgers.
#WaitroseReasons
When Waitrose suggested people finish the sentence “I shop at Waitrose because”, using the hashtag #waitrosereasons, it didn’t receive the glowing reviews it hoped for. Instead Waitrose met sarcastic tweets playing on the store’s posh image, ridiculing some of the produce it sells.
However this hashtag hijack was not such a ‘bash-tag’ as others, as whilst the responses were mocking they were not necessarily negative. In fact some took it as a success; simply serving to reinforce Waitrose’s image of being the upmarket, higher quality supermarket.
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