The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2011
Entenmann's asked who was #notguilty about treats — on verdict day, Twitter answered
July 2011: Entenmann's tweeted 'Who's #notguilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?!' — hours after the Casey Anthony verdict made the hashtag trend.
Entenmann's · 2011-07
What happened
On 5 July 2011 the Entenmann's social account tried to surf a trending hashtag: 'Who's #notguilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?!' The baked-goods brand meant to riff on guilt-free indulgence. But the hashtag was trending for another reason: the Casey Anthony trial had just returned its not-guilty verdict, and Twitter was erupting with outrage. The brand had jumped into the loudest conversation of the day without checking what it was about.
The backlash was instant: angry replies, lost followers, a parody account. Entenmann's deleted the tweet and apologised twice from the same account: 'Sorry everyone, we weren't trying to reference the trial in our tweet! We should have checked the trending hashtag first', then 'Our #notguilty tweet was insensitive, albeit completely unintentional. We are sincerely sorry.' The company followed with a formal statement distancing the brand from the post.
Entenmann's joined Kenneth Cole's earlier #Cairo tweet in the canon of hashtag hijacks — proof that a trend is a channel, not an endorsement. The case is also studied for its apology: the brand admitted exactly what it had done and why, quickly, which is the part most brands get wrong.
Why it happened
- The team chose the hashtag because it was trending, not for what was trending — the tweet was written for a mood the brand imagined, not the one the audience was in.
- On verdict day the hashtag carried anger at a trial's outcome; a bakery's joke read as celebrating it, whatever the intent.
- Screenshots travel faster than deletions — the post was gone within hours, but the image of it became the story.
The lesson
Before riding a trending hashtag, read the hashtag: the trend's context belongs to the people who made it trend. One search would have kept a bakery out of a murder-trial conversation.
Aftermath
Entenmann's survived the news cycle, but #notguilty became the standard textbook example of hashtag hijacking, taught beside Kenneth Cole's #Cairo post. NBC News said the brand had taken home 'the Kenneth Cole Award for Tacky Tweets' — and its quick, plain apology is still cited as damage limitation done right.
Sources
- TechCrunch — Entenmann's Hashtag Surfing Fails Hard With #NotGuilty Tweet
- NBC News — Entenmann's apologizes for tasteless tweet in Anthony verdict
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