Dec. 22--Don't look now -- OK, go ahead and look -- but the #ShareaCoke hashtag on Twitter is spinning out of control in strange and unpredictable ways.
On Tuesday afternoon, the official Twitter handle for Coca-Cola opened the floodgates by tweeting: "Who on your naughty list do you want to meet under the mistletoe? Mention their username and tweet with #ShareaCoke!"
This will be hard to explain to your grandmother: Upon tweeting the hashtag, one is rewarded with a tiny illustration of mistletoe and red lips. (Sadly, that little burst of holiday spirit will not appear here.)
Well, the Twitterverse responded, and just a couple of hours later, the Coke hashtag had been tweeted more than 115,000 times. That's good news for a corporate social media campaign, one would have to assume, but not all tweets cast Coke in a flattering light.
Some appeared to confuse or deliberately conflate the #ShareaCoke hashtag with #ShariaCoke, invoking the idea of Islamic law. More than a few of those tweets also referenced GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
Still others tweeted "#ShareaCoke with your toilet," including a photo and instructions on how to clean one's toilet with the soda.
A health policy nonprofit called Healthier Colorado used the hashtag to link to a Forbes story on Coca-Cola influencing an anti-obesity group that it funded. "Coca-Cola paid researchers to #ShareaCoke by promoting misleading information about sugary drinks and obesity," the group wrote.
To be fair, there were also many Twitter dwellers who applied the hashtag as a sincere expression of affection, as the beverage maker intended.
Coca-Cola couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
gtrotter@tribpub.com
