A regional IGA has been forced to cancel a chocolate giveaway after the hashtag – which spelled out the store’s name was trolled for being accidentally “rude”.
IGA Yass announced it had pulled its 10kg Cadbury chocolate bar competition after the hashtag #igayass was bombarded with comments pointing out the tag reads rudely.
As a result, the competition was pulled, with the IGA store writing on Facebook it would “not tolerate our staff being targeted online for some people’s amusement”.
“Unfortunately we have cancelled our 10kg Cadbury block giveaway for the time being. 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 post, shared Thursday, read.
But the move left social media divided.
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Some stated it was a marketing fail, laying the blame firmly on management for failing to spot what was described as a “glaring” hashtag mistake. Others said those who had trolled the store had “wrecked it for others”.
“What’s wrong with #Yassiga? I feel you brought this on yourselves and if you were serious it would have been easily avoided,” one wrote on Facebook.
“I hope that Iga Yass takes some responsibility for not bothering to proof read properly,” another said.
However, there were plenty who saw the “funny” side too.
“Are people really carrying on about this? Oh lighten up!!” one wrote.
“Why do some have to wreck it for others? This is hilarious and should be used for all the marketing purposes you can!” a woman stated.
“I don’t get why it was such a problem in the first place, I think the people who have the problem with it are the problem with society,” one guy scathed.
The NSW store, which is an hour outside of Canberra, has garnered hundreds of comments over the announcement and a similar amount of shares.
On Twitter, many declared the situation “wins the internet” as others said it was “an important lesson in hashtagging”.
News.com.au has contacted IGA for comment.
Continue the conversation @RebekahScanlan | rebekah.scanlan@news.com.au
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