Social media: One man’s meat is another man’s poison: Part 2

When the idiom ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’ was first recorded in 1576, I doubt the author thought that there would ever be something called ‘social media’ 5 centuries later. On Friday the 20th of December 2013, I came across a tweet ‘Going to Africa. I hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding I’m white’ tweeted by Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco).’ on my timeline. I somehow ignored that tweet. to my surprise @JustinSacco was trending Saturday morning along with a hastag ‘#HasJustinLandedYet‘ (which had over 100 000 tweets)  Justine deleted her twitter account, and all her other social media accounts, but the damage had already been done.

You can also read: One man’s meat is another man’s poison: Part 1

Click here to see the tweets.

On Sunday, Justine issued an apology & ‘News24‘  also reported that she had been dismissed by her employer over the tweet.

Whilst people were using the hashtag to attack Justine, ‘Aid for Africa’ took the opportunity to ask for donations & also raise awareness about AIDS.

From the above, it is clear that ‘Aid For Africa‘ used Justine’s “fall from grace” to increase awareness for their brand.