McDonald’s kicked off a new Twitter initiative, #Shamrocking right before St. Patrick’s Day. The fast food company has recently failed its #McDStories campaign which was aimed to encourage users to share their favorite memories of the McDonald’s but instead faced mostly bad stories of awful food and service.
Photo: Shamrocking as it is, from adweek.com
The #McDStories promotion launched in January as part of a month-long ‘Supplier Stories’ campaign was supposed to allow fans share stories on their ‘favorite’ fast food restaurant but users started to post something like: “McDStories…a nice juicy Filet o’fish. With added worm. Still alive. Nice. Never again” (a post by user @flatfootphil). So, Mcdonald’s had to quickly change the method of the promotion, pulling the #McDStories hashtag and starting to use another hashtag, #meetthefarmers .
Despite of the obvious fact that social media can boost bad reputation, McDonald’s wants to fall into the same trap with its #Shamrocking. This hashtag initiative is promoting the mint-flavored Shamrock Shake in the concept of St. Patrick’s Day.
Introducing the initiative McDonald’s even made a post with a headline ‘Have You Tried #Shamrocking Yet?’ on Buzz Feed, The post says «The Irish jig has been an expression of joy since the 16th century, and thanks to the hot new viral trend of #Shamrocking, it’s making a modern day comeback. Check out some of these high-stepping #Shamrockers, then get out there and treat your friends to a shake and make them dance with delight!»
People are invited to take photos while doing the festive jig that is #Shamrocking, and upload it up on Twitter. It must be a collective social media meme uniting people but we’ll see what happens this time.
McDonald’s is also running a kids targeting Happy Meal campaign now.
Another brand, VitaminWater also use a meme in its latest commercial. It recollects several viral references, from the Nyan cat and sexy sax guy to the Filipino inmates dancing to Michael Jackson, says Mahsable.
“Truimphant babies, photobombs, seductive men who strictly play smooth jazz, and of course the cats made of toaster pastry. These days, it’s not unusual to encounter something this unusual,” explains VitaminWater on YouTube inviting fans to watch the video while sipping its product.
