An IGA In Yass Pulled Its Own Online Comp After A Hashtag Became The Literal Butt Of A Joke

Let’s not split any hairs here: the NSW town of Yass is carrying a blessing and a curse in its name. A real devil and god scenario. Two wolves inside it at all times. On the one hand? It’s a funny name. On the other? It makes trying to do anything serious rather treacherous. And if you’re not on your game, slip ups are inevitable. Take, for example, the local IGA supermarket in Yass, who had an otherwise perfectly normal online giveaway absolutely scuttled thanks to a rather ill-constructed hashtag.

The story goes that the supermarket was recently running a giveaway on its Facebook page, with the grand prize being a rather coveted 10kg block of Cadbury chocolate.

While the mechanics of the since-deleted competition are somewhat unclear, what is apparent is that it involved, in some way, an identifying hashtag for the store.

A hashtag that, in the form specified, identified the name of the supermarket company, followed by the town’s name.

Which would be IGA, and then Yass.

So…

#igayass

I mean at some point that’s just asking for trouble, isn’t it.

Following the cancellation of the giveaway, store representatives posted on their Facebook page that, while the hashtag is indeed “funny,” they will nonetheless “not tolerate our staff being targeted online for some people’s amusement.” Although they did move to assure customers that the 10kg Cadbury giveaway will return in new and improved form soon.

As commenters have pointed out, while any abuse of staff is obviously shameful, #YassIGA was probably always gonna be the smarter move as far as hashtags went.

‘Course this isn’t the first time a business in Yass has fallen into the looming trap of its own butt-adjacent name. McDonald’s, quite famously, spruiked its existence in the town via a legendary – but sadly removed – highway billboard that attained almost mythic status in early internet circles.

Fantastic little town, though. Salt of the earth. Can’t speak highly enough of it. Real quintessential Australiana stuff.

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