• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, December 4, 2014

OK, I readily admit this is completely juvenile, and I’m sure someone will complain that I really shouldn’t dignify it by writing about it. But “dignity” has never been our watchword here at the Social Graf, and it’s just too funny to ignore, darn it. And there just may be a social media marketing lesson here: If you really want your campaign to go viral, maybe you should try including shocking profanity?

Oh, poor Sephora, which, in the parlance of our times, “failed so hard they won.” The cosmetics giant’s new Australian branch was hoping to tap into the holiday spirit and generate some buzz for the opening of its first store down under with a social media campaign using the hashtagline  (did I just make that up?) #Countdowntobeauty. But company social strategists left out a crucial letter -- and oh, what a difference an “o” can make. The message as it appeared on the Facebook page actually read: ““Help us #C*ntdowntobeauty at Westfield Sydney.”

Unsurprisingly, the misspelled hashtag, which produced an obscenity so offensive I won’t even reproduce it in a family industry newsletter, went viral faster than a kangaroo knocking out a drunk. While it’s not clear exactly what the full neologism might mean -- to me it suggests some sort of traumatizing exhibition-style competition -- it’s obviously hilarious.

In our prickly, puritanical land this kind of mistake would probably trigger an uproar, complete with opinion pieces on Slate analyzing exactly why it is so offensive, and what it says about the gendered mindset of people who think it’s “funny,” ideally using the words “trigger alert” somewhere. Luckily Australians are famous for their sense of humor, and the reaction on Twitter was remarkably positive, including (crucially) from women. One Twitter user typified the general tenor: “I’m calling it early: @sephora have the best hashtag of the year. #c*ntdowntobeauty.”

Whether executives at Sephora found the gaffe nearly as amusing as the rest of the Australian online population, I very much doubt: the offending message swiftly vanished, and as far as I know no apology has been forthcoming (yet). It’s also an open question whether it will help Sephora actually, like, sell stuff. But a lot of people now know that Sephora is opening a store in Australia -- you can count on it.