In just a two-day span, #Alexfromtarget was tweeted over 1.5 million times, in what Breakr CEO calls “one of the most amazing social media experiments ever,” and Target had nothing to do with it.
Looking to connect with “fangirls,” Breakr took a good looking kid from Texas and turned him into a heartthrob overnight, successfully proving the power of a fanbase. We’ve seen this before with the likes of Justin Bieber, Rebecca Black and Gangam Style, all launching into stardom (for good or bad reasons) due to the internet. CNN reports, that in less than a week the phenom has taken off and spread over multiple social media channels including Urban Dictionary, Tumblr and Fan Fiction. It just goes to show you can never underestimate the power of word of mouth, or clicks. Now the next question, should Target capitalize on this unexpected publicity? I say… why not?