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Waitrose's Tweet Draws Some Twits

Written by Tom Ryan

A Twitter campaign by Waitrose, the U.K. supermarket chain, aimed at fans of the chain wound up attracting herds of detractors and jokesters.

Using the hashtag #WaitroseReasons, Waitrose on Monday asked people to retweet the words, "I shop at Waitrose because ________."

A few complimentary responses about the chain's staff and selection were overwhelmed by largely negative responses that lampooned Waitrose's position as an upscale grocer. Retweets in this vein included:

  • "I shop at Waitrose because I think food must automatically be better if it costs three times as much."
  • "I shop at Waitrose because darling, Harrods is just too much of a trek mid-week."
  • "…So people know I'm filthy rich and therefore automatically better than they are."

A few were somewhat vulgar while sillier ones took advantage of the set-up with lines like, "because Tesco doesn't stock Unicorn food." One sympathetic Twitter user posted: "Poor Waitrose. They're so nice it never occurred to them people might take advantage."

In a following Tweet, Waitrose said it enjoyed reading "most" of the responses. It added in another, "Thanks for all the genuine and funny tweets. We always like to hear what you think and enjoyed most of them."

Speaking to Advertising Age, Jim Coleman, managing partner of We Are Social in London, said, "I think they genuinely wanted some insight from their customers, and opportunistic punters took the opportunity to play on the middle-class stereotype that Waitrose has. They didn't react quick enough or with a clear plan. It shows why being prepared with a crisis plan is key to your social comms, whatever brand you are."

Although some saw Waitrose benefiting from the attention, the Twitter-backfire reminded some of a McDonald's Twitter campaign launched in January. Entitled "MdDStories," the campaign was supposed to promote its work with farmers but instead led to tales of food poisoning, employee abuse and animal cruelty. The campaign was pulled within two hours but Twitter conversation continued for a week.

Writing on his blog, Mark Shaw, a consultant, said social media continues to offer such wake-up calls for companies used to the one-sided conversations of traditional advertising. Wrote Mr. Shaw, "They cannot control Twitter. They cannot control what people are going to say, how some people may hijack a #hashtag and turn it into something completely else."

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