Vodafone PR ruse backfires on Twitter
A Twitter competition launched at the weekend by Vodafone, 12 days of smiles, has backfired on the firm within hours after it was hijacked by anti-cuts group UK Uncut.
The phone giant had promised to give away free handsets to Twitter users who tweeted using the hashtag #mademesmile to inform fellow tweeters of “something that made you smile today”.
Unfortunately for the phone firm however the campaign was hijacked by campaigners using the term to draw attention to the company’s alleged tax avoidance.
Publicising the campaign to their own followers and inviting responses with barely a hint of sarcasm UKUncut subsequently retweeted a slew of critical tweets.
These were subsequently displayed, unmoderated, on Vodafone’s website as the operator unwittingly propagated its detractors attacks.
One of these, posted by @halfiranian, read: “Thinking of the bewildered Vodafone execs panicking into their Blackberry’s this morning #mademesmile.”
@UKUncut added: “We've shut down dozens of their stores. Let's see if we can shut down their rubbish christmas promotion too! #mademesmile”