Dr. Pepper/Snapple Group Donates $5,000 Worth of Bottled Water In Exchange For Twitter Handle
15 replies, posted
[quote]Many Good Samaritans have come to the aid of Flint, Michigan, during its water crisis, with donations pouring in for bottled water and water filters to deal with the high levels of lead found in the city's municipal water supply.
One resident in Dearborn, Michigan, about an hour south of Flint, said she couldn't turn a blind eye to Flint's woes.
"I had been thinking a lot about Flint at that point," Diana Hussein, 29, told ABC News. "I didn't feel there was anything that I was doing."
So, she's helping out by donating a very valuable piece of digital real estate.
Hussein said she created the Twitter handle @DietDrPepper in 2009. The drink was sitting on her desk when she was trying to come up with a name for her Twitter account, she said, so she went with it. Over the years, she tried reaching out to the giant multi-product company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, to see if they would be interested in the username.
"I hadn’t expected anything outside of maybe some free pop," Hussein said.
Hussein said it was not until January this year that the company started showing interest in the account. She made a post about it on Facebook, where some people encouraged her to negotiate a sale. Hussein said company representatives offered her brand merchandise.
Hussein thought about it and decided she would relinquish the name if the soft drink company promised to help Flint. That's it.
"She wasn't trying to come after a monetary value," Dr Pepper's public relations manager Brian Bell told ABC News. "Diana was very straightforward. She was very open and honest with us."[/quote]
[url=http://abcnews.go.com/US/michigan-woman-dr-pepper-twitter-handle-exchange-bottled/story?id=38027156]ABC News[/url]
Wow. That's super kind of her.
"Dr Pepper gives away free and plentiful natural resource at a ridiculous markup in exchange for a username"
I do think it's sort of funny that the headline states that Dr.Pepper "donated" that, when really they just made a sale. The person who had the username is the real good samaritan here, it was her donation. She could have easily asked for money or personal merchandise.
[QUOTE=FinalHunter;50051347]I think the alternate title is "Dr. Pepper gets tax write off in exchange for twitter handle."[/QUOTE]
Do you know what a tax write-off actually is
[QUOTE=Snoberry Tea;50051437]"Dr Pepper gives away free and plentiful natural resource at a ridiculous markup in exchange for a username"[/QUOTE]
Ya they probably shouldn't have done or donated anything at all, would have been far more helpful
Diana Hussein should be getting praise in this case, not Dr. Pepper/Snapple. She's the one who really went out of her way to help the people of Flint, Michigan, it seems.
[QUOTE=Snoberry Tea;50051437]"Dr Pepper gives away free and plentiful natural resource at a ridiculous markup in exchange for a username"[/QUOTE]
"A username they didn't have to buy with the resource that is not always as free and readily available as some kids who take them for granted think"
[editline]2nd April 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=mugofdoom;50051642]Diana Hussein should be getting praise in this case, not Dr. Pepper/Snapple. She's the one who really went out of her way to help the people of Flint, Michigan, it seems.[/QUOTE]
Pretty much. It has nothing to do with them, they wanted that name so they buttered her up
Doesn't Twitter have a policy where if you have a legitimate claim to a handle, you can apply for it, even if its taken?
[QUOTE=DogGunn;50051714]Doesn't Twitter have a policy where if you have a legitimate claim to a handle, you can apply for it, even if its taken?[/QUOTE]
I believe it's only if you believe the account is inactive
[QUOTE=DogGunn;50051714]Doesn't Twitter have a policy where if you have a legitimate claim to a handle, you can apply for it, even if its taken?[/QUOTE]
They might have been able to do that, but it wouldn't look good.
Well they do own the copyright so it wouldn't be hard for them to get it and it wouldn't really be bad PR either. So I'm siding with how good they handled this.
[QUOTE=Kylel999;50051648]"A username they didn't have to buy with the resource that is not always as free and readily available as some kids who take them for granted think"[/QUOTE]
"Large multibillion dollar company 'gives away' $5000 worth of a natural resource readily available in the continental United States at a 200,000% markup in order to obtain a username for a social media website"
[editline]3rd April 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=Map in a box;50057141]Well they do own the copyright so it wouldn't be hard for them to get it and it wouldn't really be bad PR either. So I'm siding with how good they handled this.[/QUOTE]
They didn't handle anything good? What are you talking about?
The owner of the twitter handle had been trying to sell to them for years. It wasn't until recently they got interested. They offered her merchandise for it and she turned around and said "help Flint" and Dr Pepper said "okay" because it would be cheaper to give Flint "$5000 worth" of water than to give this girl however much actual merchandise they would have given her.
100% of the praise needs to go to the owner of the twitter handle. Dr Pepper made a smart business decision. Nothing more. The girl offered the company a deal that was more in their favor and they took it.
as someone who's been the nonfamous person in that situation with a facebook URL
they can just take it from you, the lawyer contacting me was just like "hey look we're asking you first before we talk to facebook, but we can go straight to facebook so this is really just a courtesy 'would you change it please'"
[QUOTE=LordCrypto;50060390]as someone who's been the nonfamous person in that situation with a facebook URL
they can just take it from you, the lawyer contacting me was just like "hey look we're asking you first before we talk to facebook, but we can go straight to facebook so this is really just a courtesy 'would you change it please'"[/QUOTE]
Maybe u got scammed m8
[QUOTE=G-Strogg;50060411]Maybe u got scammed m8[/QUOTE]
considering i had already changed it to the thing they wanted, so i couldn't change it back anyways
they had to deal with facebook to get them to reset it
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