As social media has become an increasingly important part of any company's marketing strategy, it's sometimes easy to forget that a company's online presence is being operated by real people. When the Twitter accounts of different brands get into a heated exchange, or the official Wendy's account has a particularly snarky comeback, little attention goes to the person composing the tweet. However, a recent tweet from the Russian account for multinational technology company, MSI, serves as a reminder that the folks managing these accounts are all too human.
MSI, or Micro-Star International, is a Taiwan based information technology corporation. In a recently unearthed tweet dating back to this April, the official Russian account for MSI tweeted a message in Russian translated as: "Sexy" along with an image of a Sergal fursona. In the furry community, a fursona is an anthropomorphic persona taken on by an individual, typically designed complete with names, backstory, art, and oftentimes costumes. Sergals are a fictional race of humanoid beings with animalistic features from the sci-fi/fantasy universe of Vilous, created by Japanese artists, Mick Ono and Kiki CR.
The tweet in question was a response to one from a Russian flight finder account, @Aviasales. According to Google translate, the tweet from Aviasales roughly translates to: "If you were cheese, what kind?" Yet, despite the fact that this initial twitter exchange first happened back in April, it was only recently that the incident started to draw attention after Twitter users such as @CalixAWD started to repost screenshots of the exchange alongside responses from MSI Gaming Russia.
Generally, MSI Gaming Russia has responded to the attention with a general sense of good humor. Among the responses that @CalixAWD shared screenshots of was an apology addressed to a since-deleted tweet from Twitter user @ShugoWah, noting that the "offending manager" won't be terminated. A subsequent tweet implies that the account's official stance on the affair is: "at least it was funny."
A number of users commenting on the incident have pointed out a visual similarity between the Sergal fursona and MSI's dragon logo. Others have drawn attention to the lack of credit given to the artist behind the fursona illustration, going so far as to track down the illustration's creator, a digital artist on the website Furaffinity.net who goes by the name ~Zephyrue.
Overall, the general response seems to be in the vein of surprised amusement from Twitter users both a part of the furry community and beyond. While it might seem that the initial tweet was accidental, the tweet has yet to be taken down and, if nothing else, the exchange has drawn a lot of attention to MSI Russia's Twitter account.
Source: Twitter/@CalixAWD, Twitter/@MSIRussia