What looked like a series of tweets posted by someone gaining unauthorised access to Ola Cabs’ account turned out to be a well thought out plan to send a message. The series of ‘drunk’ tweets started showing up after few hours of inactivity on the Twitter handle of Ola Cabs and gave the impression that the account has been hacked. Most people (including us) were quick to jump to this conclusion especially after the recent headlines about multiple celebrity and brand accounts being hacked. This went on for over two hours before Ola announced that the brand has been running a campaign to send the message that drunk driving is stupid and to discourage people from doing the same.
The unusual tweeting starting near 6 PM last evening with this tweet
My dream is to drive, over the rainbow so highhhhhhhhhhh
— Ola (@Olacabs) December 25, 2016
The tweets continued after that giving the impression of a drunk person behind the handle. Apart from the random ones, some of the tweets were directed at food review platform Zomato, e-tailing firm Flipkart, streaming service Netflix and two popular online comedy groups AIB and TVF. A Bon Jovi track was also made fun of in the process.
It’s my lifeeee. It’s now or ever. I ain’t gonna drive forever
— Ola (@Olacabs) December 25, 2016
@ZomatoIN YOU’RE*
— Ola (@Olacabs) December 25, 2016
.@TheViralFever Purushottam Ji, f you’re out drinking tonight, give me a shout lol
— Ola (@Olacabs) December 25, 2016
That feeling when you tag the wrong handle and waiting for reply #facepalm @NetflixIndia
— Ola (@Olacabs) December 25, 2016
The slightly sensible tweets were accompanied with some word mess as well.
woskdow skash dhsahd sjakkha sahhjlsaash asjkakhas
— Ola (@Olacabs) December 25, 2016
More than two hours later, Ola tweeted a video explaining that the tweets were deliberate and then went on to send the message to not drink and drive. Along with the video they tweeted, the comedy group AIB also created a video on the same topic to discourage drunk driving in association with Ola.
About those last tweets, drunk tweeting is dangerous, imagine what drunk driving can do. #PeekeMatChala pic.twitter.com/n5GbBlXuTw
— Ola (@Olacabs) December 25, 2016
The series of tweets caught attention of twitter users and very certainly managed to send the message to a larger set of audience than Ola would otherwise have been able to. Smart move Ola!
