IGA Store In Yass Pulls Competition After Being Trolled For #IGAYass Hashtag

Hashtags are great for collating content and creating a movement on social media.

But, when it comes time to sorting out the collection of letters and/or numbers that will go into the hopefully viral moment, you have to be very careful with the order you choose.

That couldn't be more relevant than for an IGA store in the New South Wales town of Yass.

The IGA store in question was keen on giving away 10 kilograms of Cadbury chocolate and everything was all setup for the competition.

However, the store has since revealed it's had to pull the giveaway due to an unfortunate hashtag.

The management team has written on the IGA's Facebook page, saying: "Unfortunately we have cancelled our 10kg Cadbury block giveaway for the time being.

"Yes if you read #igayass it can be funny, but we will not tolerate our staff being targeted online for some people's amusement.

"Stay tuned for the new way to enter and we apologise to those who actually went to the trouble to enter this time."

That is very unfortunate.

People have flocked to offer their sympathies in the comments section and many are upset that jokesters would take advantage of the situation to have a bit of fun.

One person wrote: "No matter what the situation, it's not justify to target the staff members."

Another person added: "I don't get why it was such a problem in the first place, I think the people who have the problem with it are the problem with society."

Others weren't so sympathetic and said the IGA store brought it on themselves for not checking the hashtag properly.

Especially considering the town has a history with awkward associations with its name (McDonald's had a sign that looked like it said MYass), you'd think they would be hot on this.

A Facebook user wrote: "I hope that IGA Yass takes some responsibility for not bothering to proof read properly."

An second person said: " I feel you brought this on yourselves and if you were serious it would have been easily avoided."

Message to literally everyone in Yass, think before you hashtag.

Topics: Fail, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie