There’s nothing quite like corporate campaigns meant to harness social media being taken by the reins and subverted. The latest hijink comes courtesy of the unsuspecting marketing people behind Walmart and Pitbull, the hip-hop star that will shill out for just about anything. That includes Energy Sheets, which is the brand oddly paired with sending Pitbull to whatever Walmart has the most “Likes” on Facebook by July 15th. So now the collective will of the internet is sending him to Kodiak, Alaska.
The campaign to send Pitbull somewhere chilly traces back to one David Thorpe and one Jon Hendren. Due to the fact that you can enter in whatever zip code you like on the voting page, they began a campaign for folks to enter in 99550. And now, as of writing, the Walmart page for Kodiak, Alaska sits at just under 20,000 “Likes” and looks to be winning. On top of that, #ExilePitbull has become a popular hashtag on Twitter.
When Mr. Thorpe was asked why he held so much animosity for Pitbull, he responded that he believes “he’ll have a wonderful time in Alaska.” Considering that other tweets were coming in warning of bears, one can certainly surmise that if not wonderful then certainly his time in the frozen north will be interesting.
When you ask for the voice of the internet, sometimes you get what you wanted. But the outcome is rarely predictable.
(via Uproxx, image credit via Stephen Kallao)
- This is reminiscent of that lawyer suing The Oatmeal
- You can play physical chess over the web with robotic chessboards
- Iran might up and replace the internet entirely
