Source:Daily mail
A regional IGA has cancelled a special chocolate offer after its social media team mistakenly tagged it with an awkward hashtag.
The supermarket in Yass, about an hour’s drive from Canberra, promoted its 10kg chocolate giveway on Facebook – but included the tag #igayass.
The awkward hashtag caused hundreds of juvenile Facebook commenters to troll the store and staff, resulting in IGA cancelling the promotion.
‘Unfortunately we have cancelled our 10kg Cadbury block giveaway for the time being,’ IGA management wrote.
‘Yes if you read #igayass it can be funny, but we will not tolerate our staff being targeted online for some people’s amusement.’
The cancellation post only drew more attention, generating 100 times the usual responses to one of the store’s posts.
‘When boomers hashtag,’ one person wrote.
Some speculated the error was deliberate to generate publicity, while plenty defended the store and staff.
‘I can’t speak for others, but I legit would never have seen that if not highlighted,’ one wrote.
‘So people had a bit of immature humour. Who cares. However if a staff member was harassed that’s a different matter,’ another wrote.
IGA Yass management asked genuine competition entrants to ‘stay tuned for the new way to enter’ and apologised to disappointed punters.