Chip Company's Social Media Backfire

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Walkers Crisps, a division of PepsiCo Inc., shut down an online marketing campaign that was hijacked by pranksters, with the company inadvertently tweeting images of murderers and dictators.

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Lineker then takes a pause to look at the photo of the “entrant” before turning to the camera again and saying “nice selfie,”. The short clip then photoshops the “selfies”, which have so far included Josef Stalin, Josef Fritzl and notorious sex criminal Akinwale Arobieke. Lineker then signs off the video saying: “The Walkers Wave, a thing of beauty.” Walkers urged fans to send them selfies when they announced their campaign on Twitter shortly after 1pm today. It appears to be an automated system in which people directly upload the photos without Walkers being able to vet them before they appear.

A Walkers spokesman said: “We recognise people were offended by irresponsible and offensive posts by individuals, and we apologise. We are equally upset and have shut down all activity.”

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