The fast-working action of Twitter marketing never stops amazing us. From Big Bird to the prime minister of England, Twitter can put names, brands and personalities back into the cultural pantheon in the blink of an eye. Remember Stacy Dash? Probably not… but thanks to Twitter, you might have been talking about her this week — and that’s nothing short of a marketing miracle.
Stacy Dash played Dionne to Alicia Silverstone’s Cher in 1995s mega-hit movie comedy Clueless. Dash was an “it” girl for a few moments in the ’90s but since has only really popped up on cable sitcoms and reality shows. Yet Dash experienced something of a resurgence this week, and it’s all because of an innocent tweet that endorsed Mitt Romney for president. On Monday, Dash tweeted “Vote for Romney. The only choice for your future.@MittRomney @TeamRomney #mittromney #VOTE #voteromney“ along with a sexy, patriotic photo. Within moments, a firestorm of tweets attacking and supporting the actress flooded Twitter.
By mid-afternoon, Dash had become a story on the nightly news. Her critics made the Twitter battle dirty by bringing race into the game, tweeting messages like, “You’re an unemployed black woman endorsing @MittRomney. You’re voting against yourself thrice. You poor beautiful idiot” and “Still Clueless.” Soon the man himself spoke up, coming to Dash’s defense.
The winners here are Stacy Dash and, as usual, Twitter. Did the actress intentionally tweet her endorsement of Romney to get noticed? Who knows? But even the most clueless among us know that Twitter is the perfect platform to share controversial opinions in exchange for a little publicity. On the flip side, however, Dash has certainly realized that in TwitterLand, with great big opinions come great big criticism. Attacks aside, she’s faired just fine and could leverage some interviews and more PR out the whole thing if she’s smart.
Will Dash be the last celebrity to use Twitter to mount a marketing comeback? In the words of Cher and Dionne, “as if!”
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