Puma’s new campaign, titled ‘Forever Faster,’ has resulted in new video spots, a new spokesman in Usain Bolt, and a hashtag campaign, previously tagged #Fastergraph, that asked Twitter users to tweet at @PUMA and an athlete using the hashtag in order to get a personalized, autographed photo and message sent to their handle.

It started out well enough, with fans posting their autographed photos on Twitter. Here’s one signed by Argentina player Segrio Aguero for a fan named Boris:

Here’s another smooth-sailor for a fan named Lara, signed by Borussia Dortmund’s player Marco Reus. Twitter users who received messages were notified by Puma.

As the campaign continued on Monday, though, it became clear that the same several photographs and messages were used, with the Twitter user’s first name swapped in to make it “personalized.” We’re all aware that not everyone labels their Twitter name as their first and last name. So, we think you see where this is headed.

Autographs were made out to people named “Queen” or “Bestie,” or even better, a bunch of symbols. Here’s the same message and photograph from above, directed instead at a series of rectangles. You can see in the parent tweet that the Twitter user’s name contains stars and other symbols, generating the rectangles.

Naturally, once it became clear that Puma couldn’t monitor the flood of autograph requests and the names of those tweeting, people took advantage, changing their Twitter names to make it look like the autographs were made out to things far less innocent than the average Twitter fan.

Here’s Reus thanking cocaine for his success.

Good one, Twitter trolls! No really, that’s kind of funny. Sorry.

This trend then took on a life of its own, with photos of soccer stars appearing beneath messages addressed to a “person” named “LiverpoolIsWank,” and eventually, messages directed at ebola.

In the left photo below, Mario Balotelli is pictured beneath a message that reads “Ebola, don’t listen to the haters. Play your way.”


Clearly, Puma did not intend for Balotelli to advise ebola not to listen to the haters. Since, Puma has switched the hashtag from #fastergraph to #ForeverFaster. This seems to be working out better for them.

Let the lesson be learned: the Internet is not renowned for its maturity. Digital marketers, take note.

Featured image via Puma/Facebook

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