By Rupaul Parekh, Advertising Age
NEW YORK — On Twitter’s @Hyundai page, there is a collection of 140-character blasts in English and Korean about oysters, cellphones and the Yankees. Clicking on a profile photo reveals a collage of scantily clad ladies bearing cleavage and more, and a caption saying, “Have a Lustful Day.”
After having contacted the social-media site’s headquarters repeatedly to evict the squatter without success, the frustrated automaker has gone so far as to contemplate legal action. “They simply haven’t responded to requests,” said Chris Hosford, VP-corporate communications at Hyundai Motor America. “Our brand name is extremely important to us. … We’re very disappointed that Twitter has shown no interest in protecting brand names.” Unable to use the handle, the company has resorted to sending out official company tweets from @HyundaiNews.
Hyundai is far from the only marketer that’s been beat to the tweet. A quick survey of Twitter accounts for the top 100 national advertisers, as ranked by Advertising Age’s DataCenter, shows that surprisingly few have ownership of the Twitter handles that correspond to the names of their companies or their brands.
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