When McDonald’s tried to launch the #McDStories Twitter campaign, it clearly envisioned a bunch of fond memories from Big Mac lovers, interspersed with behind-the-scenes glimpses into the McDonald’s “food”-making process. (It kicked things off with a link to “some of the hard-working people dedicated to providing McDs with quality food every day.”) Unfortunately, the marketing folks there really, really misunderstood social media. Result: #McDStories was quickly overrun with the grossest, weirdest McDonald’s non-appreciation its non-fans could come up with.
See, no matter what some social media guru told you, Twitter is not just a marketing amplification engine. It’s a bunch of people, sharing things they think are worth sharing. Trying to start a McDonald’s appreciation hashtag is like the smelly, creepy kid running a write-in campaign for Prom King — not gonna work, and probably gonna backfire. People don’t start liking you just because you suggest a way to express their admiration.
Here are some of the #McDStories tweets that the company probably didn’t count on:
