do you Know the city of Issou? A small town in the Yvelines near Mantes-la-Jolie, Issou is home to about 4000 inhabitants. But it is his name which made it famous, and which has forced the brand of fruit drinks Oasis to put an end to a contest launched on the platform Twitter.
last week, the Twitter account of Oasis has launched a contest under the hashtag #OasisStreetCan to save the city more responsive to a bobbin flocked to his name, sold in a point of sale specific to the inhabitants. It was without counting on the virulence of the members of the community JeuxVideo.com 18-25 year olds.
originally, a video of El Risitas
In fact, in 2016, a video shared on the forum of online games had caused an outcry for the city of Issou: you can see a Spanish actor, known under the name of El Risitas, laughing in a very particular way while repeating the phrase, “Jesús”, a name quickly distorted into “Issou” by internet users, particularly subscribers 18-25 year olds on the site jeuxvideo.com. De fil en aiguille, the municipality of the same name has become a “meme” (a pattern of joke recurring on the internet), a status which has led its inhabitants to live in a hell: hate comments and moved on Google Maps, harassment online or by phone from the municipality and merchants… A joke virtual, which has quickly turned into a nightmare for the small town.
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Since then, Issou had been left a little more quiet, in spite of recurring comments and quotes on Twitter in particular. But the competition was launched by Oasis has changed the situation. Internet users, including members of JeuxVideo.com once again, run amok on Twitter to post the most tweets under the hashtag launched, and pushing Oasis to create the famous bobbin flocked “Oasis Issou”.
On 2 July, the community manager of Oasis on Twitter announces that it is the small village of Yvelines, which won the contest. However, at the end of the day, post a new tweet explaining that the brand is seen in the obligation to cancel the contest because of about “hateful and disrespectful” not matching “to the values of the brand Oasis”, remarks by the members of this same community. We tried to join the group Orangina, of which Oasis is a part of, but have unfortunately not gotten answers to our questions.
Since yesterday, Oasis faces a new hashtag against it, #BoycottOasis, launched by internet users to be very vocal on the social network. Many other members of Twitter also report of the hate comments, homophobic on the part of this community. Clearly, this is a marketing operation masterfully missed the mark, as well as for the city of Issou, which once again is back on the front of the stage in spite of itself.
