Is This Suicidal 'McDonald's Hong Kong' Account a Hoax or Just the Latest Viral Brand Stunt?7/29/2017 Is This Suicidal 'McDonald's Hong Kong' Account a Hoax or Just the Latest Viral Brand Stunt? http://ift.tt/2vhgT1e This week, an unverified Twitter account claiming to be “McDonald’s Hong Kong,” a real branch of the global fast-food giant, went mad. The account was apparently created in October 2016, and initially posted just a few tweets that seemed like legitimate promotional material advertising the chain’s offerings of Big Macs and spicy chicken sandwiches.
But then, something odd happened: The official, verified McDonald’s Corp. Twitter account posted a video of a woman touting the Hong Kong branch’s bakery offerings, tagging the first account.
The “McDonald’s Hong Kong” account responded this week, writing “this bitch freakin out about cheesecake while kids out here McDying. relax”.
It soon returned to posting various promotional images of McDonald’s offerings in Hong Kong.
But over the course of the last week, the account began inserting less-than-subtle messages between the promotional tweets. They told a tale of suicidal ideation, glimpses of a shattered family life and the implication someone, possibly McDonald’s Hong Kong, had kidnapped the tweeter’s son.
The pace only picked up this weekend.
The account has begun picking up hundreds of followers at lightning speed. It could be a hoax, though the account was registered and sending out McDonald’s-themed tweets long before it was tagged by the official, verified McDonald’s corporate account. Advertisement Advertisement Or a little less charmingly, it could be the latest viral brand stunt. McDonald’s just launched a delivery service in the US, and its very real Hong Kong branch is in the middle of an upscale “McDonald’s Next” rebranding. In March, another McDonald’s Twitter account called Trump a “disgusting excuse of a President” and added “also you have tiny hands,” but the company later claimed it was hacked. This is totally in line with the emerging corporate marketing strategy of blurring the lines between reality and advertising on social media, which is not as cute as brands might think. The third possibility is that someone at McDonald’s Hong Kong is a very, very lonely individual who just wishes their family would come back, and is very, very sorry for what they have done. Advertisement Gizmodo has reached out to the McDonald’s US and Hong Kong branches, and will update this post if we hear back. Digital Trends via Gizmodo http://gizmodo.com July 29, 2017 at 01:24PM
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