Twitter users will be all too familiar with promoted tweets appearing on their timeline, with most getting little more than a momentarily glance, or, more likely, no glance at all.
There are several popping up at the moment, however, that could well cause a double take, for they’re certainly not your usual promoted tweets.
Spotted by Mashable, Hasa Syed’s paid-for tweets lambast British Airways – one of the biggest airlines in the world – for its poor customer service after it apparently lost his luggage following a trip to Europe.
“Don’t fly @BritishAirways. Their customer service is horrendous”, reads one (below). “Hey @BritishAirways! I can haz my luggage back PLZ” says another.
Syed told Mashable he bought his tweets via Twitter’s self-serve ad platform for the New York City and UK markets, though declined to say how much he paid for them.
Via his own @HVSVN Twitter account, Syed explained that after hearing nothing from BA customer service about his lost luggage in the 24 hours after landing, he decided to promote his tweets “to all BA followers”.
JetBlue Airways’ senior vice-president of marketing and commercial strategy, Marty St. George, noticed one of Syed’s promoted tweets on his own timeline, calling the idea “interesting”.
Interesting; a disgruntled customer is buying a promoted tweet slamming a brand where they had a bad experience. That’s a new trend itself!
— Marty St. George (@martysg) September 3, 2013
We’ve contacted BA for a response and will update this article when we hear back.
Syed’s not the first upset flyer to turn to Web-based shenanigans to highlight an annoyance with an airline.
A couple of years back Dave Carroll and his band hit the headlines when his video, United Breaks Guitars, became a hit on YouTube and iTunes. The song is about United’s poor response to his complaints after baggage handlers at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport broke his instrument.
[Main image: Robert Sarosiek / Shutterstock]
