On Monday, the star of the sitcom “The Cosby Show” invited people to mime him with a photo on Twitter. Instead of an online promotion, it turned into a poor social media campaign. He later withdrew his “Go ahead. Mime me!” tweet, but the damage had already been done.
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In 2006 the comedian settled a lawsuit with a woman who claimed that he had drugged and sexually assaulted her. Some people evoked the event and created photos of him with derogatory titles, using the hashtag #CosbyMeme.
.@BillCosby This is fun! #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/O1ScpMBzqA
— Matthew Bramlett (@matthewbramlett) November 10, 2014
Oh man, these are making my day! #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/nWwhFEDEhD
— Cornhole West (@Floyd_Banks) November 10, 2014
How's this, did I do this right? RT @BillCosby: Go ahead. Meme me! #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/ZS6bvTZCsa
— Jason Steele (@FilmCow) November 10, 2014
I could do this all day. #CosbyMeme #cosbyproblems pic.twitter.com/A8hXSXeh6D
— sideshowRaheem (@sideshowRaheem) November 10, 2014
RT @DadSelfie: Here you go @BillCosby! #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/M08hU5dMKW
— Elliott (@Mr1738) November 10, 2014
There are over 4 million followers on Cosby’s official Twitter account. His PR team published a photo of him along with the hashtag and a link to a site where people can insert their own titles onto several of Cosby’s photos from different periods of his career.
Initially, memes submitted through the generator needed approval, but that didn’t stop people from dropping pictures into another generator which didn’t require approval. Others used simple photo editing software to create their own versions.
This is not the first time a social media campaign goes wrong. In April this year, the New York Police Department asked people to post photos of themselves and NYPD officers on Twitter. However some people (ab)used the hashtag #myNYPD to post pictures displaying police brutality.
The power of hashtags is such that they have brought down governments and fueled revolutions, but they’ve also brought despair to people and organizations. People looking for publicity should be careful with hashtags because one thing is for sure, they rarely remain on the terms set forth by their creators.
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