The Washington Football Team is experiencing some setbacks in its rebranding attempt. The latest such setback was trying and failing to create an official team hashtag.
On Sunday morning, the Team announced on Twitter, “PSA: our new hashtag will be #1932 Thank you.” One problem: Twitter requires a hashtag to have at least one letter in it. So a number like 1932 (the year the franchise was founded) can’t be a hashtag.
It would have been wise for the Team to figure that out before declaring 1932 its new official hashtag, but then again it also would have been wise for the Team to recognize long ago that its old name was unsustainable and to put a plan in place for transitioning to its new name. And a new name necessitates a new hashtag, as its old hashtag, #HTTR, no longer works because the team no longer uses the R-word. The hashtag #HTTFT for Hail To The Football Team just doesn’t look right.
Longtime Washington fan Dale Earnhardt Jr. has the right idea: Let the fan base come up with a hashtag on its own, and the hashtag that the fans adopt can be the one the team starts to use as well. Washington is trying too hard to force it.
