Chirp, chirp, tweet! There it is, again. The white bird on the blue background that is seen almost everywhere you turn. Twitter. The 140-character social media fade where you post your feelings, vent your anger, share your thoughts, and share pictures and videos from Instagram and Vine. And that is where the trouble begins.
There are numerous social media websites and applications. Some share media, such as pictures and videos, other share words and thoughts, while some are used for dating, and others are used for promotional material. It seems as though the possibilities are endless for the many uses of social media.
Twitter has used other social media applications to market their brand. Most recently, Twitter shared an ad on the social media outlet, Vine, that had a charity in uproar. Vine allows users to share six second long videos. There are numerous websites that share some of the funniest Vine videos on the web, with some including compilations of numerous videos. Though, Twitter’s video will not be seen in any of these outlets or compilations. In fact, it will not be seen at all because it was removed from the internet in its entirety.
Twitter posted a promotional video to Vine that included a six-second loop of bright flashing lights. The epileptic community was not thrilled, specifically Epilepsy Action, an epileptic charity. They argued that the video could provoke epileptic seizures to those that are photo-senitive epileptic.
There are many companies that use many forms of marketing to promote their item; three dimensional marketing materials are the first that come to mind. While some may not produce any issues with those of any disease, it is important for companies to pay attention to the materials they are using to promote their brand and their image.
Twitter politely removed their video from the internet and the story has since died out.
References
Daily, R. (2015, July 10). Twitter Pulls Vine Ad After Criticism From an Epilepsy Charity. Retrieved from http%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F3954149%2Ftwitter-ad-epilepsy%2F
Epilepsy Action. (2015, July 10).@TwitterUK Your #DiscoverMusic Vines are massively dangerous to people with photosensitive epilepsy. Please take them offline now. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/epilepsyaction/status/619426084682117121
Solomon, D. (2015, July 10). Twitter removes flickering videos criticized by epilepsy organization. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-twitter-epilepsy-20150710-story.html