How the Ashes cricket tournament ruined one Twitter user's day
Here’s a social media lesson showing why it’s very important to pick your online usernames carefully, especially if you’re not a fan of cricket and your forname happens to be Ashes.
Massachussets-based @theashes chose her Twitter username based on the fact that her real-life name is Ashley, or Ashes for short. Totally oblivious to the cricketing battle taking place between England and Australia over the weekend, she’s been inundated with messages from cricket fans hoping to discuss the sporting event, without having first checked to see whether or not @theashes was the tournament’s official Twitter feed.
Understandably, Ashley got a bit peeved. “I AM NOT A FREAKING CRICKET MATCH!” reads one impassioned tweet.
And, as we all know, the t’internetz aren’t exactly the best place to show you’re annoyed. She’s now getting thousands of messages from people who couldn’t care less about cricket, just in order to get another angry outburst from her.
Still, it’s not all bad; Quantas Airlines, spotting the perfect PR opportunity, have started the #getashestotheashes hash-tag, offering her free flights to Oz.
The lesson to be learned? Brands need to snap up appropriate social media names straight away to avoid confusion, while parents shouldn’t name their children after international sporting events!
