The National Lottery having a 'mare.

[Whitechapel]

The national lottery have started a new campaign today.

If you RT any of their tweets celebrating British medal winners from the athletics they would post a photo or video of an athlete holding a sign up with your Twitter name on. Guess what's happened...

Think somebody might be receiving their P45 in the morning.

 

[Bry Nylon]

There is nothing quite as delicious in life as seeing hugely over-paid and cynical PR companies and Ad Agencies coming completely unstuck and wrong-footed at the hands of the Great British public who refuse to play their soppy games.

I bet this seemed like a "wowza" idea at the time, with high-fives all round after a successful pitch to Camelot. After all - what could go wrong?

 

[Bry Nylon]

I'm not on Twitter, but if anybody reading this is, I'd love to see " Buy Mo Farah a new door bell."

 

[AmexRuislip]

I'm not on Twitter, but if anybody reading this is, I'd love to see " Buy Mo Farah a new door bell."

Or even Usain Bolt holding a placard with "Justin Gatlin third time lucky"

 

[clapham_gull]

There is nothing quite as delicious in life as seeing hugely over-paid and cynical PR companies and Ad Agencies coming completely unstuck and wrong-footed at the hands of the Great British public who refuse to play their soppy games.

I bet this seemed like a "wowza" idea at the time, with high-fives all round after a successful pitch to Camelot. After all - what could go wrong?

I company I worked for (but just before my time) had a similar car crash result off the back off an ill thought out "motivational" exercise.

To give a bit of background a senior manager had utterly pissed the staff off by 1) Been given the objective of cutting cost 2) Lazily banned overtime 3) Was driving around in flash new car bought with his bonus

Afterwards he found himself with a staff engagement/motivation problem so came up with the genius plan of a competition to come up with new company slogans to be printed on the coffee mugs.

You posted you suggestion in a "post box". He never bothered to check them and it was all sent off to the printers.

You can imagine what came back "You'd have to be a mug to work here" etc.. and much stronger.

Before he left he was often observed scooping up any mug he could find and was famously referred as "Mr Mugs" for a few years after.

I've witnessed similar in other places, Anonymous "We will answer any question" initiatives where the senior management have not seen them previously. My favourite was "When will the bullying stop ?" flashed up on the screen to a large audience. The brilliance being that the person leasing the session then tried to find out who asked the question...

 

[Bry Nylon]

I'm sure this has been closed down now, but I'm half-tempted to start a Twitter account called "When's Seb Coe going to grow a pair?"

 

[Triggaaar]

As corrupt as FIFA?

 

[beorhthelm]

not only predicatable, some company did a similar dumb arse idea only a few months ago.

 

[beardy gull]

not only predicatable, some company did a similar dumb arse idea only a few months ago.

Walkers. Unbelievable.

 

[el punal]

I company I worked for (but just before my time) had a similar car crash result off the back off an ill thought out "motivational" exercise.

To give a bit of background a senior manager had utterly pissed the staff off by 1) Been given the objective of cutting cost 2) Lazily banned overtime 3) Was driving around in flash new car bought with his bonus

Afterwards he found himself with a staff engagement/motivation problem so came up with the genius plan of a competition to come up with new company slogans to be printed on the coffee mugs.

You posted you suggestion in a "post box". He never bothered to check them and it was all sent off to the printers.

You can imagine what came back "You'd have to be a mug to work here" etc.. and much stronger.

Before he left he was often observed scooping up any mug he could find and was famously referred as "Mr Mugs" for a few years after.

I've witnessed similar in other places, Anonymous "We will answer any question" initiatives where the senior management have not seen them previously. My favourite was "When will the bullying stop ?" flashed up on the screen to a large audience. The brilliance being that the person leasing the session then tried to find out who asked the question...

I, too, have been in similar situations as you've described. When I was working for an international wines and spirits company there was a decision to hold a managerial "think tank" on promoting the firm's products. In normal circumstances I was under the impression that a think tank was to come up with a proposal or subject that everyone discussed, and then agreed on a strategy.

Not so on the think tank I was on. Everything had been decided beforehand by senior management and us lower deck managers were there to nod approval and think how f***ing wonderful it all was. I came up with some valid objections (and some solutions) to these suggestions. Needless to say I was shot down in flames, told I was being totally negative and obstructive.

For my "negative attitude" I was then not included in any further management meetings despite the fact that my admittance was part of my remit. My job title, role and responsibilities, within the company were changed without any consultation. Within six months my "new position" was deemed surplus to requirements and I was made redundant.

In today's workplace that would be considered constructive dismissal. The good thing that came out of this, and a beautiful bit of schadenfreude or karma, was that my immediate line manager and the one responsible for my demise suffered the same fate twelve months later.