In the annals of corporate social media mishaps, the accidental tagging of the wrong person has become something of a reliable genre — a fleeting moment of intern-induced panic followed by an apologetic post and, if the brand is lucky, a good-natured reply from the wrongly summoned party.
DoorDash, the food delivery company, appeared to be writing its own entry in this genre last month when, during the New Zealand versus Egypt match at the FIFA World Cup on June 21, it tagged the Grammy-winning rapper T-Pain nine times in a series of posts clearly intended for Tim Payne, the New Zealand defender. "Egypt has pyramids. New Zealand has @TPAIN," read one post. "Ok everybody relax, @TPAIN has a plan," read another.
The rapper, as one might expect, expressed confusion. "Are you all ok?" he wrote. "Stop tagging me in these soccer posts." He predicted, colorfully, that an intern would soon experience significant distress upon realizing the error.
Except there was no error, and presumably no distressed intern. The entire exchange was a planned marketing stunt, the company told PRWeek. (One wonders if the intern felt distressed anyway, having been cast as the fictional scapegoat.)
"When DoorDash first hit me up about another T-Payne, I thought somebody was messing with me," the rapper said in a statement, deploying the kind of scripted casualness that has become standard in these arrangements.
The campaign continued with DoorDash sending T-Pain dozens of insulated delivery bags filled with soccer balls, TimTam bars and kiwis — a fruit that doubles as a nod to New Zealand. The rapper posted the haul with the hashtag #DoorDashPartner, the disclosure that separates the merely viral from the contractually obligated.
"Our goal during the World Cup is to show up in the moment," a DoorDash spokesperson said, "and fuel the frenzy."
The frenzy, it seems, is now available for delivery.
Original story published in campaignlive.com: "DoorDash and T-Pain’s ‘Payne-ful’ mix-up was all a marketing stunt | Campaign US"