UK discount retailer Poundland has denied its social accounts were hacked after it posted an off-colour tweet where an elf on the shelf elf teabagged a female doll.
The brand’s creative juices were flowing in a post promoting its Twinings teabags where it asked consumers how they take their tea. The post, issued on Thursday 21 December, appeared on the Poundland and Dealz social media accounts and referred to the insertion of the scrotum into another’s mouth, a colloquialism often deployed and enacted virtually in video game communities.
International Business Times quotes the brand’s marketing director, mark Pym said he was proud of the campaign which cost a reported £25.53 to deliver. Cheap for the media space the stunt may have seized.
The post came as part the brand’s long-running #ElfBehavingBadly campaign that was running through December. There were complaints on Poundland’s social channels however. Some users enquired if the account had been hacked.
Hi Mark. The Poundland account has not been hacked. I am sorry that you feel this way and will share your feedback. Thanks, Zoe
— Poundland (@Poundland) December 21, 2017
There was also some marketing flattery chucked into the mix.
— Poundland (@Poundland) December 21, 2017
Further to this, there was a debate as to whether journalists should be pursuing this story. The jury is out on that one.
You’re aware that The Drum is a marketing news website and so reporting on a badly misjudged misogynistic marketing campaign is the sort of thing it does, right?
— Simon HB (@norock) December 21, 2017