Hitting a million followers on social media is a big deal to some people. While it may not mean much in the long run for the average human being, for companies and brands, hitting one million followers is a good excuse to run a contest or a promotion. Fans could end up winning free trips or merchandise while the brand uses the contest as a way to draw in even more followers - it's one of the cornerstones of online marketing.
So, when the New England Patriots became the first NFL team Twitter account to accrue one million followers, the team hosted a giveaway. Any fans that retweeted this specific post would receive a customized avatar jersey featuring their Twitter handle:
We're saying thanks to @patriots' 1million followers w/ custom digital Pats jerseys - RT for yours! #1MillionPatriots pic.twitter.com/u2SfidCb9e
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 13, 2014
If it sounds pointless, that's because it is. It's not even really a prize, but that's not what's important here.
Any Twitter user knows just how bad some of the usernames can get. There are some sick people in the world, and while they're usually tucked away in the dark recesses of the internet, they do occasionally appear out in the spotlight - and that's when something like this happens:
This is a now-deleted tweet (You can either use your imagination or go to Deadspin to see the uncensored version) from the Patriots showing off the winning user's handle on the jersey avatar. The post was left online for hours before someone finally noticed, and of course, plenty of people were upset. How did this manage to go live? It's not really clear.
In the team's defense, it seems that the account in question may have been created solely to mess with the promotion. Aside from the post in question, only two others exist on the entire account, and the account itself has only been active for roughly 18 hours (as of this writing).
Of course, the original posts were pulled from the website. The Patriots Twitter did offer this apology for letting the picture go live, though considering how many systems exist solely to prevent this sort of thing from happening, one would expect better from a professionally run NFL account. Maybe next time, the team will consider halfway-decent security tech.
Photo: Jared Wickerham/Getty Images Sports
