Why People Are Posting Fake Tales About Being Ghosted by Brands
When Anna Fleming complained in a TikTok video that Honda had “ghosted” her after promising to replace her broken-down car, an army of amateur consumer advocates flooded Honda with demands for justice. “Why didn’t you follow through on giving Anna a car???” one TikToker among thousands commented on a Honda video promoting its Odyssey minivan. “And to think I was about to purchase a Honda,” said another. But their passionate campaign had one fundamental problem: The story wasn’t true.
Social media gives individuals a megaphone in disputes with companies that treat them poorly, while executives use it for consumer insights, customer service and marketing. And algorithmic feeds like TikTok’s “For You” page now expose some people’s posts far beyond their followers, sometimes to their complete surprise. The “ghosted” trend feeds on all those dynamics—along with TikTokers’ penchant for riffing on other users’ content.
It began after Sydney Clements, a medical student at Indiana University, said the beauty brand Revlon hadn’t fulfilled its promise to replace a lip oil she lost while line dancing. Millions of views piled up as cosmetics and skincare brands including Prada Beauty, Paula’s Choice and NYX chimed in with offers to send her their own products.
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Honda for its part hasn’t defended itself to Fleming or her champions on TikTok. “We’re aware of a recent TikTok video that has circulated widely,” the company said. “The individual who posted it has since confirmed that the content was intended to be a joke.”. Honda is watching the situation and determining whether “any additional steps are needed,” it said.
Fleming didn’t think people would take her post so seriously, she said in an interview. “It’s a joke,” she said. “I thought that was clear.”. She explained in a follow-up video that she had tried to make her satirical intent plain by closely mimicking the language of the Revlon lip oil video. She also edited the original caption on her post.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-people-are-posting-fake-tales-about-being-ghosted-by-brands-c5ef6a42?st=Y5SA1z&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
free
= new reply since forum marked as read
Is one in which the person was not really doing that intentionally, sounds like 