The WNBA and Twitter have cooked up a promotion to celebrate the league’s 25th anniversary that would have sounded like complete nonsense in 1996.
A new hoodie contains a “hidden” QR code that automatically drafts a pre-written tweet to be published by a user. “With this Tweet, I’m standing with the WNBA and the entire W community to elevate women in sports and shine a light on the social justice causes they’re fighting for,” the script reads. “Retweet or Tweet using #WNBATwitter, and watch on WNBA Twitter Live.”
The WNBA certainly deserves more attention, and its players have arguably been even greater champions of social justice than their counterparts in the NBA. But issuing a generic tweet by taking a picture of a hoodie doesn’t seem like the most efficient, or fun, way to support the league.
Can you even buy the hoodie? —
As of now, there’s no way to purchase one of the QR code-adorned hoodies from the WNBA. So in order for a user to send out the boilerplate tweet, the two parties are banking on them diligently looking out for the hoodie while watching a game or coming across it on their timeline.
If you want to voice your support for the WNBA without the gimmick, you could just tweet words of your choosing and include the #WNBATwitter hashtag if you’re so inclined. And if the hoodie does eventually go on sale, you’d likely use it for its express purpose exactly once before it becomes just another item of apparel.
We encourage hoops fans to get down with the WNBA this season if they haven’t already — but as far as engaging with this hoodie and its QR code, you can continue on living your life just fine.
