The National Lottery has been forced to apologise after a Twitter campaign backfired in spectacular fashion.

To celebrate a new partnership with British Athletics and to tie in nicely with the end of the World Championships in London, The National Lottery gave Twitter users the opportunity to see their name on a board held up by a whole host of British athletes.

You’d think that such a high profile campaign would have some sort of filter on it to stop people taking advantage of it, but apparently not. Realising that there was no censoring put in place, Twitter users quickly began to change their account names to a whole host of offensive messages, such as…

No lessons learned?

You’d think that the Lottery might have been more careful, given that something very similar happened to Walkers just a few months ago in May.

To coincide with the brand’s sponsorship of the Champions League final in Cardiff, a giant digital billboard was put up in the city centre featuring a football crowd doing a “Mexican wave”.

Fans on Twitter could get involved by sending their selfies using #WalkersWave, with a video of Gary Lineker holding their photos posted on the official Walkers Twitter and broadcast live on the billboard in Cardiff.

It all sounds great, doesn’t it? I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

Well…

If you’re looking for an agency to take control of your social media and not completely tarnish your brand’s reputation, get in touch with our specialist social team.

Words by Jon Taylor.

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