Oh dear, we thought that big brands might have learnt that hijacking hashtags isn’t a good idea and yet here’s US fashion brand Kenneth Cole,hijackingthe#Cairohashtag (currently used to report from the troubled events in Egypt) to promote its new Spring collection.
Need we remind you, Kenneth Cole, that people aredyingon the streets of Cairo as they fight for their beliefs?
It’s quite shocking to see a brand act like this in 2011. Almost two years ago, UK retailer Habitat set thetextbook case studyfor hijacking popular hashtags with wholly inappropriate promotional messages, including the protests in Iran at the time. The company eventually apologized after bloggers and the Twittersphere quite rightfully reacted with shock to the tweets.
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Maybe in Kenneth Cole’s case today, it was a poorly trained employee thinking that they could maximise their audience by tweeting using a popular hashtag (in a quite a creative way, it has to be said).Manyothersaround Twitterdon’tagree. That said, it was signed “KC”, so maybe Kenneth himself sent it?
To be fair, Kenneth Cole’s Twitter account thenapologisedfor the tweet, saying that “We weren’t intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historic moment”. We’re still surprised that some brands aren’t savvy enough yet to know that it’s a bad idea to hijack hashtags in the first place.
For more social media fails,this is absolutely worth checking outfrom Jeremiah Owyang.
Update:
Kenneth Cole has now removed the tweet and issuedan apology, doesn’t look like many have accepted it.
Story byMartin SFP Bryant
Martin SFP Bryant is the founder of UK startup newsletter PreSeed Now and technology and media consultancy Big Revolution. He was previously(show all)Martin SFP Bryant is the founder of UK startup newsletterPreSeed Nowand technology and media consultancyBig Revolution. He was previously Editor-in-Chief at TNW.
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