Stop following me.

Wheat Thins fun continues from Vinny Warren’s Escape Pod. In the most recent spot, they ask everyone to follow @chrismacho on Twitter because he commented sarcastically how awesome it was that the brand was following him on Twitter. FF >> to an influx of followers later, and he’s internet famous. (Read more about the behind the scenes here.) Depending on which comment you read though, getting recognized by a brand is either the coolest thing to happen to people – or a major intrusion. The dude’s friend doesn’t dig the stunt, going as far as to imply Chris’ life has sucked since, as do several YouTube comments like this.

Brands singling out fans is a good point to consider, except... I’m not seeing where he complained, even once on Twitter this past month. As for being surprised, while there is an element of Punk’d at work here,  Vinny shared with us on AdVerve that the people know about it ahead of time and can opt out. (As with any TV commercial.) Blogworld doth protest too much. This highlights another by-product of the web and how brands interact with it. There’s a culture established now where people seem to go to great lengths to get noticed on whatever social network they live, yet when a brand does something like this, it gets singled out. Not sure how you can have it both ways, so chill and enjoy you some new followers courtesy of Wheat Thins.