Another #McFail
Is not the actual content and photos that we post that always matters. As marketers, we must pay attentention to how we word things. Even if we intend to communicate one thing, if we phrase our thoughts and ideas incorrectly it creates a recipe for disaster and comes back to bite you.
Sometimes we have an idea, we are excited and ready to roll. We are sure it will do well, we just think “it is the best idea ever”. We don’t even think twice about it. Even though we have may have good intensions, there is always that subtle possibility that it can blow up and turn into an epic fail. Often times, it can be funny, but never for the brand, but for the audience who is able to toy with it.
This is the very case that happened with McDonalds back in 2012. They launched a twitter campaign using the hashtag #McDStories in attempt to engage the consumers and maintain a strong relationship online in addition to the instore experience that they offer. The brand wanted to share their story, and the story behind the products that they sell. It seemed simple. They began the campaign with the first hashtag #MeetTheFarmers to illustrate how the brand offers fresh produce. The company decided to share another tweet later which was the tweet that gave leverage to the disaster that was about to built up. After McDonalds tweeted “when you make something with pride, people can taste it. #McDstories”, everything broke loose from there.
Twitter users used this hashtag, manipulated it, and began to simply trash the brand sharing crazy experiences they had at McDonalds, claiming them to be their own personal #McDstories. So many the tweets were posted , whether or not they were actually true, were extremely gruesome, and quite nauseating too. Some of the tweets with this trending hashtag mentioned things like people chipping their teeth on food and being hospitalized with food poisoning.
When McDonalds used this hashtag for their campaign they never in their wildest dreams thought that it would be used to sabotage their brand. Although, it did. It is as if they had handed over ammunition for their customers to go out there and fry them. Perhaps, before they used this hashtag for their campaign, they should have consulted with specialists and content writers who understanding SEO and internet trends. I believe that the hashtag was way too vague and offered the opportunity to go out there and share their story. What ever their story is, good or bad. The brand had learned their lesson, but perhaps not soon enough, as there were way too many tweets using this hashtag. A couple of days after, the director of social media sent out an email explaining how the twitter campaign did not go as planned. Assessing the numbers, with 72,788 mentions of the hashtag, only two percent were hashtags used to sabotage the brand. Although that is a very small percentage, that is still over fourteen thousand tweets that were posted in attempt to poke fun of the brand and the quality food they offer. They could have handled it better by taking care of the issue sooner. Perhaps this would be dealt with differently in 2019, as we have a better handle on social media and technology.
