The European Central Bank recently released a new version of the €10 banknote. (It’s nowhere near as nice as Norway’s new notes, but hey, what is?) The central bank for the 18 countries that use the euro decided to promote the release of the currency with a selfie competition:
Tu as déjà vu le nouveau billet de 10 euros ? Partage ton selfie #mynew10 ! Inscris-toi sur notre site ! https://t.co/y9x6wLGT0I
— ECB (@ecb) October 27, 2014
Though the end of the month, Twitter and Instagram users who take a selfie with the new note and tag it with the hashtag #mynew10 will be entered into a competition to win a new iPad. But not all entries are eligible for the prize—”Selfies must not under any circumstances show the new €10 banknote in a situation that may adversely affect the reputation and honour of the ECB,” the bank says in the competition’s terms and conditions (pdf).
Can you guess what happened next? As we’ve seen time and time again in corporate social media campaigns, the ECB’s competition was quickly hijacked by people using the hashtag to express their frustrations with the euro, Europe, austerity, and politicians in general.
This Slovenian used a statue from the Tuileries garden in Paris—perhaps the oldest recorded facepalm—to question the logic of the ECB paying Twitter to promote tweets about the selfie competition:
European Central Bank @ecb paying Twitter to convince me to take a selfie with a 10 € note?! pic.twitter.com/zXJgj36nWk
— MaticBitenc (@MaticBitenc) October 29, 2014
This Frenchwoman notes how little €10 actually gets you, like a packet of cigarettes and half a beer:
#mynew10 Et oui pour ça t’as plus rien! pic.twitter.com/3Q4e5Kctww
— Sandrine NG (@Malouinefolle) November 1, 2014
A couple of people had a message for ECB president Mario Draghi on how best to use the new notes:
@ecb #mynew10 esnifando Draghi pic.twitter.com/yl82hEzmAU
— Alberto García (@aghalberto) October 23, 2014
And on whether the president’s salary is justified:
Mario Draghi gets almost 38.000 notes like this in only 1 year http://t.co/M20AW8Ncb3 #mynew10 pic.twitter.com/dQ7aQtq8N7
— Nacho Plaza (@nachoplaza) November 5, 2014
This Italian’s rude gesture has been retweeted more 40 times:
Dopo una votazione in rete, ecco la foto più votata per il concorso BCE. Ecco il mio selfie per Draghi #mynew10 pic.twitter.com/5KRVrh4TRM
— Salvo Notav Mandarà (@SalvoMandara) November 17, 2014
But not as many retweets as this person in Spain, who lambasts her country’s bleak economic situation:
In Spain this is the only #mynew10 we have. All notes are in the pockets of corrupt politicians pic.twitter.com/okAedpFsPo
— Meligrana (@ElviraMeligrana) November 4, 2014
Spaniards took to the hashtag immediately. This one sums up the mood, with Spain being compared to the Titanic in one:
Envía tu mensaje al Banco Central Europeo @ecb #mynew10 @BillEnfurecido pic.twitter.com/LnKa2Y5u42
— José Manuel Blázquez (@Elzo_) October 31, 2014
This tweet uses the competition to highlight recent revelations of aggressive corporate tax planning in Luxembourg:
#mynew10 @ecb @EU_Commission How many of these have been evaded thanks to @JunckerEU ? #LukLeaks EU Alí Baba cave pic.twitter.com/wJKV6dQOti
— Pablo E.N. (@NezPablo) November 8, 2014
And several people called to scrap the euro entirely and return to the franc, lira, Cypriot pound, and other former currencies:
#mynew10 I want back my real currency.
Euro is killing my country.
@ecb pic.twitter.com/F9dE42cGvQ— Jean Sebastien (@JeanLucidi) October 24, 2014
To all of which we can only say: ouch. When the ECB first announced its banknote revamp last year, it built an online Tetris clone to get the word out and teach people about the new features. It probably should’ve just stuck with that.
The hijacking of the ECB’s euro selfie competition was swift and brutal
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