#IGotVerizon: Verizon gets trolled over promoted Twitter hashtag

Fresh off announcing a slate of new data plans, Verizon thought it would be a good idea to promote it with a sponsored hashtag on Twitter.

The hashtag, #IGotVerizon, was meant to sway people to make the switch and encourage people to tweet positively about the brand, like this:

Instead, it quickly went haywire. Hundreds of furious Twitter users hijacked the hashtag to complain about the company, slamming the new plans in a communal therapy session. 

Here are some examples:

Competitors saw the opportunity and jumped in like the CEOs of Sprint and T-Mobile:

Verizon ranks toward the bottom when it comes to customer satisfaction, so letting people openly comment on the brand probably wasn’t its smartest idea. The company didn’t immediately reply for comment about the campaign.

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