Is fast-food Twitter subject to the rules?

Matilda Jakovac

mj244121@ohio.edu

 Is this real?

Sometime in 2017, fast-food Twitter took users by storm with witty banter and fresh commentary that was out of character for such large corporations. 

photo courtesy of Twitter.com/@ChickFilA

Within time, Twitter accounts representing fast food chains such as Chick-fil-A, Burger King, Wendy's, and Taco Bell were all taking on new social media personas. As this occurred, users questioned whether the accounts had been hacked, or if PR agencies had really taken on a new marketing strategy.  

After all, there has to be rules against this sort of thing, right?

As a matter of fact, there are two ethic codes that specifically deal with public relations and advertising online. 

The first, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) provides a set of principles and guidelines for ethical behavior in the field of public relations. An example of misconduct provided by the PRSA describes that "A member spreads malicious and unfounded rumors about a competitor in order to alienate the competitor's clients and employees in a ploy to recruit people and business."

As you can see in the following tweet, Wendy's wasn't exactly following the rules during their humorous attacks towards McDonalds. It seems that the Wendy's twitter account is referencing McDonalds' ice cream machines that are seemingly always broken.

Photo courtesy of Twitter.com/@Wendys

While one could argue that the tweet was intended to be all in good fun, this could also be seen as an ethics violation where Wendy's is perpetuating rumors to take business from its competitor, McDonalds. 

The other code of ethics, the Institute for Advertising Ethics (IAE), outlines eight core principles and practices for advertising ethics. According to the IAE, "Advertisers should clearly distinguish advertising, public relations and corporate communications from news and editorial content and entertainment, both online and offline. 

If you ask me, in the case of fast-food-twitter-commentary, the lines between advertising and entertainment have certainly been blurred. 

Photo courtesy of Twitter.com/@TacoBell

Should we do something?

So, with corporations blatantly disregarding the rules, should someone step in and put an end to the social media foolery? In my opinion, probably not. 

From a marketing standpoint, these corporations have found a way to catch the attention of the younger audiences at no cost to them, while opening the door for other companies to join in on the fun. However, if things get out of hand in the future, revisions to the ethics codes may be necessary 

Additional principles could be added such as "Public relation agencies should always act with utmost professionalism while communicating with other companies and the public." 

Until then, I look forward to seeing what fast-food Twitter has in store for us next.