Once again, Twitter is in the news, and this time, it's because of hacking. Both Burger King and Jeep have seen their accounts targeted in the last couple of days, with hackers claiming the brands have been bought out by respective rivals McDonalds and Cadillac. A social media disaster in many ways, but there has been a bright side - Burger King gained 30,000 followers as a result.

We can only assume that this is what MTV had in mind when they decided to fake a hacking last night. Their Marketing Director tweeted "Everyone watch @mtv right now... #MTVHACK" four minutes before the first "hacked" @MTV post. Putting aside how ridiculous this is - if my client got hacked, I certainly wouldn't be directing people to it, I'd be sorting it out - it's just not a good idea, on any level. Brands who successfully interact with consumers through social media do so because they are bright, engaging, interesting and, crucially, because they have integrity. No-one likes to feel that they've been duped.

My overwhelming thought on this is that it's just very naїve. You don't need to have been working in PR for even a decade to remember the ruckus around "astroturfing", where brands were faking grassroots PR online by posting reviews and blog comments under pseudonyms.  This is exactly the same, just using a different channel. The internet is no longer a new and mysterious channel, and we all know consumers are getting increasingly savvy - there's no getting away with this type of behaviour. I'd have hoped that as an industry, we'd have all grown up a bit.

If you want to read more, it's also worth checking out Forbes' views for a slightly different take on the situation.

@rebeccataylorpr