Tweet To Eat

Like some corporatized version of Burning Man (or is that an oxymoron?), Kellogg's decided to forgo currency altogether at their Soho pop-up shop in London last month, advertising free samples of their new line of Special K Crackers in exchange for a shout-out on everyone's favorite 140-character social media service, Twitter. Special K rep Sarah Case said before the opening, "The value of positive endorsements on social media sites is beyond compare so we're excited... to literally use social currency instead of financial currency to launch this new product in our bespoke Special K shop."

Customers received their savory snacks only after their message of support for the brand appeared on a large LCD noticeboard installed in the shop (complete with the hashtag #tweetshop). Entities do similar promotions like this all the time (Facebook "likes" for free perks, and such), but this is the first time that social media has been used in place of cold hard cash for tangible goods in the global marketplace. Is this something you'd like to see more of? Let us know in the comments.