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Vodafone tax protest made me smile

Keith Parkins | 12.12.2010 23:46 | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements


It made me smile to see tax dodging corporation Vodafone shoot themselves in the foot.

Vodafone unpaid tax
Vodafone unpaid tax


In what could be seen as a misappropriation of Make My Day, Vodafone did just that by appropriating the twitter hashtag #mademesmile as an ill thought out marketing campaign.

The idea was you would tweet something meaningless and gibberish with the hashtag #mademesmile and the best would get a Vodafone prize.

UK Uncut had far better ideas. They made use of the hashtag #mademesmile to make it a tending topic on twitter with messages like

Captain SKA - Liar Liar  http://t.co/kh4qZY5 #LiarLiar4XMASno1 #music #ukuncut #mademesmile

Tax protest turns Vodafone's smile upside down  http://t.co/VMGpJDk #mademesmile #ukuncut

Vodafone forced to pay their unpaid taxes #mademesmile #Ukuncut

Grateful Vodafone executives say a big thank you to Chancellor George Osborne  http://t.co/rjqWezn #mademesmile #Ukunc

Vodafone tax protest made me smile  http://t.co/u3urQQB #ukuncut #mademesmile

Please re-tweet this messages to keep them trending.

A huge success. By trending it has alerted many more people to tax dodging by Vodafone and their unpaid £6 billion tax bill.

Now not only do we have he opportunity to shut down and occupy Vodafone stores on the High Street, thanks to the Christmas goodwill of Vodafone we can carry on the protest 24 hours a day in cyberspace!

The terms and competitions Vodafone had imposed on the competition, number 11 of 18 provide particular mirth: "Check to see if there's any tax implication by winning a prize as you'll be responsible for this."

Also see

Tax protest turns Vodafone's smile upside down
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/12/vodafone-smile-tax-protest-twitter

Grateful Vodafone executives say a big thank you to Chancellor George Osborne
 http://keithpp.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/grateful-vodafone-executives-say-a-big-thank-you-to-chancellor-george-osborne/

Brighton Uncut Vodafone Action
 http://keithpp.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/brighton-uncut-vodafone-action/

Keith Parkins
- Homepage: http://keithpp.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/vodafone-tax-protest-made-me-smile/