Hashtag disasters can happen to the best of us. After all, there’s nothing truly new under the sun, and this applies doubly to the written language. However, there are certain words and phrases which, when combined in the form of a hashtag, can be unintentionally amusing, revealing, or downright disastrous. Here’s a list of five of the most horrendous hashtag mistakes perpetrated on Twitter – so far.
5. The Entenmann “Not Guilty” Fiasco
Entenmann, the well-known international purveyor of various bread and pastry goodies, had what looked like an excellent idea on paper – well, hastag paper, that is. They put a post up on their Twitter page asking readers to share how they felt about indulging in snacks. The hashtag was #NotGuilty. Unfortunately, the timing was off – way off. The day the new #NotGuilty hashtag dropped was the same day that the verdict in the Casey Anthony murder case – Not Guilty – was revealed. Social media users being what they are, they quickly connected the hashtag with the judge’s verdicts, and Entenmann wound up having to apologize.
4. The “Ask Stevie G” Blunder
Twitter scored another famous blunder in 2011 when Adidas footwear representatives posted #AskStevieG as the hashtag of the day. The idea was for fans to write in and ask famous Liverpool football icon Stevie G anything that they wanted to know. Considering the target audience was Liverpudlian football fanatics, the response was one that should certainly have been anticipated. In the end, it proved to be a massive public relations and hastag disaster for Adidas, Stevie G, and presumably a great portion of the residents of Liverpool itself.
3. The Habitat Hashtag Appropriation Steal-A-Thon
Furniture retailer Habitat made a horrendous hashtag blunder in 2009 when its Twitter account handlers made the dubious decision to spam up the social network by appropriating hashtags related to various events that were trending at the time. One of the most controversial hashtag choices was #Mousavi, a direct reference to the events of the failed Iranian revolution that was still unfolding at the time. The wholesale hashtag hijacking initiative cost the company a great deal of credibility with Twitter users, and very likely resulted in a sizable impact on its bottom line for the year.
2. The #QuantasLuxury “Don’t Look There, Look Here” Maneuver
Quantas Airlines’ Twitter handlers came up with the idea to tweet the hashtag #QuantasLuxury. So far, so good…except that at the very time that the hashtag went live, thousands of passengers were stranded during an epic grounding of nearly all of the airline’s fleet. The resultant flap over the unfortunate timing of the tweet resulted in Quantas being awarded the very dubious honor of topping the list of Australia’s Biggest PR Disasters of the Year. Although the airline has recovered from the disaster, it’s safe to say they’ll be checking to see if their planes are actually in the air before they tweet or use a certain hashtag.
1. Susan Boyle’s “Susanalbumparty” Fracas
Susan Boyle’s Twitter handlers tweeted #SusanAlbumParty to promote the release of her new album. Unfortunately, the mirth began immediately once someone rearranged the letters to read “Sus’ Anal Bum Party.” Although the tweet was quickly deleted and replaced by #SusanBoylesAlbumParty, the damage had already been done. Thousands of mock invites and RSVP’s flooded the Internet overnight. Better luck next time, Susan!
Check out our other blog posts if you want to learn how to run your Internet marketing campaigns in a wise and well thought out manner! We promise to carefully research any hashtag we choose to use.