"The spidonut first appeared innocently enough, as part of a rather generic Halloween menu rolloutlast October. "No tricks, just treats" the brand posted with a series of ghost emojis, promoting its spider confection on Instagram alongside a purple trick-or-treat tub of munchkins. (Honestly, it was meh at best.) The spider doughnut wasn't even new - since 2017 Dunkin's Halloween lineup has included a similar treat with an orange coat of frosting. But apparently the new purple hue unleashed some evil inside that munchkin center."
"Days later, the chaos began. In the days that followed, Dunkin's posts across Instagram, X, and TikTok became increasingly chaotic, andat times borderline NSFW. The spider touted its own virility ("ya grl says I'm not to itsy bitsy"), flirted rampantly ("ive got the long legs all i need is the daddddddy"), and posted not-so-subtle threats ("i will take on evry 1 of u")."
"The story that Dunkin's marketing team was pushing was that the anthropomorphized doughnut had seemingly hijacked the brand's social accounts. Then he broke containment. The evil spider popped up all over the web, posting over 1,000 comments across other social pages, spider videos, and meme accounts. The comments section of the Dunkin' posts went wild, and the campaign went viral."
A Halloween spider doughnut first appeared as a routine menu item tied to a generic October rollout. The confection was a recolored variant of an existing treat, but the new purple design coincided with a sudden tonal shift on Dunkin' social channels. Spelling and punctuation deteriorated as posts adopted a singular persona: Spidey D, acting as an errant, villainous character. The persona posted flirtatious, virility-focused and threatening messages. Marketing framed the persona as having hijacked accounts, then the character posted across the web, generating thousands of comments, widespread sharing and reaction videos that pushed Spidey D into viral circulation.
Read at BostonGlobe.com
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