With a harmless tweet meant to acknowledge and celebrate MLB's Opening Day, Hostess embarrassed itself mightily.
Or did it?
Here's the message sent out by the snack company:
It's here and we couldn't be filled with more sweet joy. #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/YndEyEgQQa
— Hostess Snacks (@Hostess_Snacks) April 6, 2015
It doesn't take a diehard sports fan to notice something weird with this ad. Baseball, of course, does not have touchdowns.
Here are some of the reactions from the Twitterverse:
hey @Hostess_Snacks....wtf are you doing...major fail here pic.twitter.com/PSNdWZGUBF
— blocked plonker (@shrekpissslave) April 6, 2015
Stick to snacks, Hostess. pic.twitter.com/6SgNIWhqNh
— Erin Sorensen (@erinsorensen) April 6, 2015
And @Hostess_Snacks with the Opening Day social media fail. No touchdowns in baseball. #MLBCentral pic.twitter.com/wwGrZDYS4z
— Ginger Gibson (@GingerGibson) April 6, 2015
The folks over at Sports Illustrated pointed the error out to Hostess, which responded with a humorous tweet:
.@SInow WHAT?! We're just excited that Sportsball started again today.
— Hostess Snacks (@Hostess_Snacks) April 6, 2015
The original tweet has been retweeted and favorited more than 1,000 times, which is a much greater level of engagement than any of Hostess' other tweets has earned. This leads one to think, might this all have been a marketing ploy?
More than a few people think this is Hostess' sly way of earning publicity:
guys. this is exactly what hostess WANTS. you're playing right into their hands. of COURSE they know. Gah. DON'T YOU SEE
— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) April 6, 2015
When you make fun of that Hostess tweet for being stupid I'm like pic.twitter.com/f67GDX9u2P
— Dave Lozo (@DaveLozo) April 6, 2015
Guys, don't encourage Hostess or else we'll just get more brands doing stuff like this pic.twitter.com/38FL9tRHgx
— Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) April 6, 2015
Stop retweeting that Hostess thing. It's an obvious ploy to get you to advertise for them & it makes you look like a dunce.
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) April 6, 2015
Whether Hostess intended the tweet to say "touchdown" or not, the fact that it has garnered so much attention likely means the snack company picked up a big win on Opening Day.
