It's been at least a few months since we had a Twitter hashtag failure. This time, the New York Police Department started a campaign: #MyNYPD.

Unfortunately, the results weren't what the police force expected. Jokes about the police supporting the "1%," criticisms about race discrimination, and photos of officers frisking dogs and wrestling people to the ground dominated the hashtag for hours.

Gawker describes the campaign in an article titled, "NYPD's Twitter Outreach Backfires in Most Predictable Way Possible."

Discussion Starters:

• Why does Gawker call the results predictable? What other hashtag failures have we seen that compare to this situation?
• Should the NYPD have known better? Why or why not?
• Should organizations just stop these hashtag campaigns, or can you identify certain situations where they may get the desired results?