AI Marketing Strategies | NYC

Register by Jan 13 to save on passes and connect with marketers from Uber, Bose and more

SECURE 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

Inside the brand and agency scramble for first-party data in the AI era

Brands are moving faster to own first-party data as AI and privacy changes alter the digital advertising landscape.

Walmart Connect takes a play out of the Amazon playbook to make agentic AI the next battleground in retail media

The next retail media war is between Walmart Connect’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus, driven by agentic AI and first-party data.

What does media spend look like for 2026? It could be worse — and it might be

Forecasts for 2026 media spend range from 6.6% on the lower end to over 10% but the primary beneficiaries will be commerce, social and search.