Asking for trouble on Twitter

This just appeared on Maverick.co.id

Malaysia’s PM and how to get #bashtagged – Maverick Indonesia

Malaysia’s PM and how to get #bashtagged IDEAS Fools never learn. In spite of well-documented social media fails when even mildly controversial brands try to shore up their popularity by inviting Twitterans to favour their hashtags beginning with #My… they keep repeating the mistakes. There was, for instance, the famous #McDstories where McDonald’s hoped that the hashtag would inspire heart-warming stories about Happy Meals. What it got served instead were snarky and downright nasty comments such as: – Dude, I used to work at McDonald’s. The #McDStories I could tell would raise your hair. (via Twitter) – One time I walked into McDonalds and I could smell Type 2 diabetes floating in the air and I threw up. #McDStories (via Twitter) – These #McDStories never get old, kinda like a box of McDonald’s 10 piece Chicken McNuggets left in the sun for a week (via the LA Times) – The promoted TT of #McDStories isn’t going the direction I think @mcdonalds wanted it to go. Lots of weed stories and heart attack jokes. (via Paid Content) – Ate a McFish and vomited 1 hour later….The last time I got McDonalds was seriously 18 years ago in college….. #McDstories (via Twitter) – #McDStories I lost 50lbs in 6 months after I quit working and eating at McDonald’s (via The Daily Mail) With precedent so firmly set one wonders what fools (independently or inspired by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s office) engineered the #RespectMyPM hashtag campaign on Twitter. To put it mildly Najib is far from being mildly controversial. In fact a student of communications would say that Najib has a toxic reputation, not only having an unlikeable public persona and an even more unlikeable public persona in his wife, compounded by his obtuseness in denying how a few million dollars happened to be deposited into his personal account, plus sacking or jailing dissenters.