Who else feels like an imbecile after years spent correcting those who pronounced GIF as JIF? Earlier this week Steve Wilhite, father of the Graphics Interchange Format, accepted a Webby Award for his popular animated creation. In place of an acceptance speech, he flashed a GIF on the screen that read, “It’s pronounced “JIF” not “GIF.” Mea culpa!
In response, the peanut butter makers released a GIF of their own, this time incorporating their logo — an endearing (if not obvious) newsjack executed by the condiment’s social media team. That single tweet received 1,867 retweets and 553 tweets and counting.
But as always with real time creative, that’s not exactly where the story ends (or rather, begins). Twitter user @tim_nolan was quick to point out that Jif snagged his brilliant idea. Nolan publicly pointed this faux pas out to the Jif social team via Twitter, and they wisely swooped back in with apologies and a gift basket.
For more examples of real time social media brilliance, check out the now notorious Oreo newsjack and College Humor’s lesser known play off the giant banana.
