Did you see Office star Rainn Wilson’s tweet, wherein he disparages the food at Del Taco, a fast-food Mexican restaurant chain? If not, here’s what happened. Wilson, accidentally (presumably accidentally) tweeted the following out to his nearly 2.7 million followers:
And then he tweeted this:
And then came the plug:
And then hugely popular tech blog Mashable posted a story about how Wilson was caught plugging a product he didn’t really believe in. And this morning, Wilson tweeted this trio (remember, these things are in reverse chronological order):
Personally, I don’t think Rainn would have used the “@” in his first Del Taco tweet to his assistant if it was really meant to be a direct message. It was meant for everyone and everyone was meant to see Dell Taco’s official Twitter handle, which includes the hyperlink to the diarrhea purveyor’s official Twitter feed. All I know is that a lot more people are talking about Del Taco today than they would be otherwise. And although Wilson would’ve reached a few million people with a simple tweet-plug, he’s reaching many more millions with the press (and yep, we’re guilty!) he’s generating. Also, there’s a new episode of The Office tonight (perfect timing). So, congratulations to Wilson for a good show and congratulations to Del Taco for getting us to talk about their shitty food!
But what do you think? Did Mashable really catch Rainn in anything more than a meta-marketing scheme? Is it just a marketing scheme or do you think Wilson really made a mistake? Sound off in the comments section.
