Now that spring has sprung and March Madness is nearly at its dramatic conclusion, baseball season is upon us. And a few brands have begun to celebrate by creating their own style of Twitter fodder—for better or worse.
Enter Hostess, purveyor of snack cakes, which topped all the other brands this morning with what many are calling a bad-on-purpose "slam dunk" of a tweet. It shows cupcakes decorated like baseballs and the word "Touchdown."
Which left many people scratching their heads at the mixed sports phrasing.
It's here and we couldn't be filled with more sweet joy. #OpeningDaypic.twitter.com/YndEyEgQQa
— Hostess Snacks (@Hostess_Snacks) April 6, 2015It stands to reason this was completely intentional. It's been more than three hours, and the tweet is still up. And anyway, no one can be that dumb, right? Lots of people seem to think it was a straight-up gaffe, though Hostess' lone tweet since then—a reply to Sports Illustrated—seems to imply the opposite:
.@SInow WHAT?! We're just excited that Sportsball started again today.
— Hostess Snacks (@Hostess_Snacks) April 6, 2015I'd argue that in our hoax-driven, faux-viral culture, this was a genius move. Showing genuine excitement would have gotten lost pretty quickly, while this stands out. And it makes more sense to be the butt of the joke intentionally, rather than accidentally.
Check out some other reactions below.
hostess graphic designer … YOU HAD ONE JOB pic.twitter.com/TQ6L01fGGv
— kelly cohen (@politiCOHEN_) April 6, 2015 Hostess strikes out on #OpeningDay with fumbled tweet » http://t.co/pnhLU80vNIpic.twitter.com/zoMYvxndgx
— CNBC (@CNBC) April 6, 2015 this tweet is a #slam#dunk imo pic.twitter.com/G88Wx9IhKy
— Heather Schmelzlen (@anchorlines) April 6, 2015 congrats to hostess's brandgineers for harnessing the average person's desire to point out trivial errors
— kept_simple (@kept_simple) April 6, 2015 This tweet is a hole in one! https://t.co/XNzYgo5838
— Jason Sparks (@sparksjls) 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