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Social Media Twitter Penguin Books

Knowing ploy or social media fail? Penguin Books runs #YourMum Mother’s Day Twitter campaign

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

March 9, 2015 | 7 min read

To celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, Penguin Books launched a dubious social media campaign asking users to tweet with the hashtag #YourMum.

Predictably, the scheme was hijacked by social media users who repurposed Penguin’s well intentioned buy-a-book-for Mother’s Day brand proposition with crass ‘Your Mama’ jokes – the staple insult of playgrounds throughout the world.

The hashtag, which somewhat clashed with the tone of Sunday’s top trending term ‘#InternationalWomensDay’, saw social media users spout filth about #YourMum. It took the publishing house some time to realise the error of its ways.

But by then, it was too late...

Credit to Tannen Brown for being on of the first firms to pitch in on the trend.

And finally, Waterstones complimented Penguin's nerves of steel for risking such a calamitous hashtag.

Ultimately, the hastag is trending in the UK and people are talking about books - so perhaps the campaign concluded as was intended...

Social Media Twitter Penguin Books

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