If you were one of the more than a hundred million people who tuned into yesterday’s Super Bowl broadcast, it was hard to ignore the introduction of hashtags to ads, encouraging people to interact with various companies on Twitter. While some hashtags made some brand correlation like Bud Light Premium’s #makeitpremium push, others were a stretch like Hulu’s #mushymush. I can get past that because what you are really trying to do with a hashtag is create a platform for your customers to interact with.
But what if that interaction goes sideways and the hashtag turns into a pun attacking your brand? Gotta hand it to the editors over at Esquire. They took a sampling of the “twitterverse” and found some great puns not utilizing Super Bowl ad specific hashtags as the brands intended. In some cases the hashtags were even used as as a weapon directed specifically at the brands that created them. My personal favorite is Jack in the Box’s #marrybacon campaign that asks the question, “If you love bacon, why don’t you marry it?” The response from one tweeter? “That #marrybacon commercial made me feel like a whore after eating bacon-jalapeno poppers and sliders with bacon on them.”
