This is what brings us to Brand Twitter. If anybody isn't familiar with weird online things, I'll explain. Corporations have been using social media for years, but recently there's been an explosion in corporate social media accounts, especially on Twitter, that present the brand as a very humanized individual. This of course describes the Wendy's Twitter account, which will tell you to fuck off if you insult their burgers, but also includes brands like Sunny D, Burger King, Denny's, etc. Most people just ignore these accounts or occasionally laugh at them (because let's be honest, the Wendy's girl saying the fuck-word is funny), but there's also a pretty big backlash against Brand Twitter and I can understand why.
It feels like a violation, like these brands are lying to people and pretending to be something they're not. And I mean, that's kind of what they're doing. They're not just regular social media users, they're huge companies. Wendy's is not really feuding with Burger King in any organic way, it's a smart marketing ploy to make consumer think about the brands more and maybe even buy more burgers in support of their favorite. A lot of the internet's charm is that it's just regular people doing regular people things. It's entertaining when two people get into an online fight because there's real stakes and real emotions behind it. Wendy's and Burger King may have the surface-level appearance of a feud going, but it's hollow inside. It doesn't satisfy our weird voyeuristic desire to watch two strangers destroy each other in public and it feels like a betrayal.
Does this type of marketing strategy work? I haven't seen the numbers, but I imagine they're pretty positive. Wendy's Twitter has been going 'viral' (if you can even call this artificial type of content viral) for years. But it's always going to rub some people the wrong way because it feels inherently dishonest.
Here's a relevant video on the topic. Enjoy.
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