14 spots left to join us for the Digiday Publishing Summit

Join us Sept. 14-16 in Miami to connect with top publishing leaders

SECURE YOUR SEAT

Kay Jewelers befuddles Twitter with #ekbwk hashtag

Silly, silly Kay Jewelers. Doesn’t it know that creating a branded hashtag, especially one that isn’t even a word or phrase, is just asking to be hijacked?

The jewelry brand has been airing a Valentine’s Day  TV spot featuring a man sitting across the table from his girlfriend. She is so engrossed in her phone — i.e., not him — that he actually has to text her in order to get her attention. So he can give her a diamond necklace. How sweet, we guess. As the spot concludes, a hashtag appears on the screen: #ekbwk, which is meant to stand for the brand’s slogan, “Every kiss begins with Kay.”

Well, of course, the Internet wasn’t going to let this hashtag just go along its merry way without messing with it. Here are some of our favorite abuses of the #ekbwk hashtag. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in Marketing

By the numbers: Wall Street’s tough assessment of ad tech

Big Tech continues to dominate digital growth, triggering a Wall Street exodus, but are returns imminent?

CMOs are struggling to link AI visibility with sales

Brands are spending on tools that rate their visibility within LLM responses and AI search, but proving the commercial impact of GEO remedies isn’t easy.

Lifestyle brand Stanley 1913 adapts its marketing for the AI search era

The marketing it was doing worked well, but only for a human audience. The brand needed different approaches to ensure it was picked up by the AI platforms.