Coleen Rooney vs Rebekah Vardy Broke The Internet Across All Social Platforms

It was the moment that Twitter had been waiting for: the showbiz drama of the decade. With one tweet made at 10:29 yesterday, the internet went into meltdown. Coleen Rooney had played detective to solve a mystery: who was leaking her life to The Sun newspaper? The seven paragraph statement – a screenshot of a word processed document, a class above the usual screenshot of the mobile Notes app that most celebrities use – ended with one killer line: it was Rebekah Vardy. Dun, dun, duuuuun.

The effect this had on social media was one that has not been seen for quite a while. The drama united users over a series of several hashtags and even motivating several big brands to wade into the debate themselves, jumping on the waves being created by the fallout between Rooney and Vardy. Social Chain Data says that this row generated over three times the mentions of ‘Boris Johnson’ on Twitter as Brexit finally took a step back from the limelight for once.

The hashtag of the century

#WAGathaChristie trended in the top 10 of Twitter for most of Wednesday whilst #vardygate began to appear on Thursday as the fallout between the pair continued. Memes were used and even generated as a doctored image began circulating of the classic board game Guess Who featuring the ‘Rooney edition’ and the ‘Instagram snitch game’ with a main image of Rooney angrily working out Vardy was ‘who’.

Then the memes started

Another popular meme was a photoshopped version of Scooby Doo where Vardy is unveiled as the ‘villain’ who would have got away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky children…

Brands like Innocent and Netflix, known for their irreverent hot take on popular culture trends, got involved too. Netflix UK tweeted: “we’re going to have to make a documentary about this, aren’t we” whilst Innocent posted on their Instagram an image of their new *green* drink with an arrow stating it’s “the only thing juicier than Coleen v Rebekah”.

Whilst it’s not easy for many brands to get involved in such trends, it can really help edgy, modern and current brands stand out from the crowd on a day where social media all piles in on one trend.

We thrive on making a difference for our clients on social media, read more about our approach here.  Drop us a line at hello@ponderosagroup.co.uk if you’d like to see how we can help your brand.