Hamburger chain McDonalds had the idea that serial social media - and especially Twitter - could be used to sing the praises of the food in its restaurants. The campaign did not turn out well. McDonald last week put forward two hashtags:
#meet the farmers and #McDstories. Via #meet the farmers tag suppliers were supposed to twitter to show how fresh and healthy the ingredients used actually are. Via #McDStories tweets such as "When making something with pride people can taste that."Payment was made so that these tweets had a prominent place on Twitter.
McDonald's hoped that visitors to the chain would enthusiastically start to twitter about the company and how nice the food was. The opposite happened. "I only eat at McDonald's when I am sick, because it will make me sick in any case' Parker Stafford twittered. And: "These #McDstories will never grow old, like a box of McDonald's chicken nuggets, which has been in the sun for a week'. And also, (for instance), animal rights organisation PETA used the hashtag to quickly announce what would not be right with McDonald's.
The complaints and jokes about the chain lasted two hours. Then McDonald's decided not to use the #McDStories- hashtag anymore. Rick Wion, social media director of McDonald's declared yesterday: "We learn from our experiences."