A quick and funny lesson today.
A lesson of what not to do.
A couple of weeks ago there was an ad spotted on Instagram. Here’s how it looked:
Yes, there is a fake strand of hair over some heavily discounted sneakers.
Here it is in full view:
Designed to make you believe that there is a real strand of hair on your phone and thus have you swipe the screen, bringing you to the company’s website, the advertisement was created by Chinese sneaker manufacturer Kaiwei Ni.
In a company profile, Kaiwei Ni is described as an “integrity first” company that has passed Alibaba’s (very stringent) standards for certification.
It’s not clear what the company believed would happen once someone was tricked into visiting their website, though 80% off some fake Yeezys does sound like a pretty sweet deal.
The lesson here: don’t post something that could backfire. Even if you think it’s smart and funny.
When contacted, Instagram wrote back, saying that the ad had already been taken down weeks ago and the company’s account banned from ever advertising on its platform again. So, it appears that Kaiwei Ni’s plan may have worked a little differently than they expected.
Chinese shoe company tricks people into swiping Instagram ad with fake strand of hair
PS. Always blow, never swipe.
