Qantas in a Tweetin' nightmare
Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, Qantas have made an even bigger Twit of themselves.
In a final attempt at creating a positive attitude on social networks towards the airline, Qantas developed a PR campaign with the hashtag #QantasLuxury.
The company’s Twitter account asked followers: “What is your dream luxury inflight experience? (Be creative!) Answer must include #QantasLuxury.”
The competition prize-pack itself could have caused outrage, with the winner to receive only “a First Class gift pack feat. a luxury amenity kit and our famous QF PJs”.
But the major backlash came with users hijacking the #QantasLuxury promotional tag and attacking the airline.
Twitter users took to the social network to vent their disgust at the brand, with a barrage of cheeky tweets taking aim at the Aussie icon.
User the_aaron_smith wrote: “#QantasLuxury is chartering a Greyhound bus and arriving at your destination days before your grounded Qantas flight.”
“#QantasLuxury is seeing your planes on Getaway not Four Corners,” smurray38 said.
While, user Aptronym believes “getting from A to B without the plane being grounded or an engine catching fire” is the meaning of #QantasLuxury.
Social expert James Griffin told Fairfax Media, by about 1pm, Australians were sending out 51 tweets a minute on the hashtag with the majority making fun of #QantasLuxury.
And, this may not be the end – with the competition initially set to run until Thursday, Qantas may have days of negative publicity on its hands.
The campaign is the latest attempt by Qantas to get the public back on side, after copping months of negative publicity before the grounding of its entire fleet on October 29. This was due to ongoing industrial disputes with three unions.
But fear not, Qantas, Twitter user alexmiller thinks he has a solution for your PR nightmare.
He suggests: “Alan Joyce should seek an injunction to ground twitter due to the #qantasluxury fiasco".
But, as a Qantas spokeswoman says the #QantasLuxury competition was launched as part of their "ongoing social media strategy".
Perhaps just a new social strategy could be a start.
