Manitoba man's popular tweet prompts Leon's Furniture to change product name
A Manitoba man’s popular tweet resulted in Leon’s Furniture changing the name of one of its products.
On Saturday, Dylan MacKay, an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba in food and human nutritional sciences and endocrinology, tweeted a picture of a Leon’s storage ottoman that looks like a hippopotamus.
“The fact that this is not called a hippopottoman is a huge failure,” his tweet said.
MacKay said he got the idea for the tweet after seeing an ad for the piece of furniture and joking about it with his wife.
“That took off with lots of people having seen it now…my Twitter’s just been going crazy for the last couple of days,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.
MacKay noted he’s been receiving lots of hippo jokes, retweets and comments on the post, which has now garnered nearly 60,000 likes.
The tweet ended up gaining so much traction that even Leon’s caught wind of it and decided to take MacKay’s suggestion and change the name of the product to the hippopottoman.
“Hey Dylan, hip-hip-hooray. Hopefully, we aren’t a huge failure anymore,” the furniture store said in a tweet.
MacKay noted that Leon’s is sending him something following the success of his tweet.
“I don’t know what it is, but hopefully it’s a hippopottoman,” he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Why drivers in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada will see a gas price spike, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
How to avoid the trap of becoming 'house poor'
The journey to home ownership can be exciting, but personal finance columnist Christopher Liew warns about the trappings of becoming 'house poor' -- where an overwhelming portion of your income is devoured by housing costs. Liew offers some practical strategies to maintain better financial health while owning a home.
It's the biggest election in history. Here's why few Indians in Canada will take part
In the Indian general election that gets underway on Friday, almost a billion people are eligible to vote, but a vast majority of the overseas Indian community in Canada won't be casting a ballot.
McDonald's customers left with 'zero value' collection of free hot drink stickers after company ends program
It took years for Vinnie Deluca to collect more than 400 cards worth of free McDonald's McCafe coffee, a collection that now has "zero value" after the company discontinued the program.
Jury selection in Trump hush money trial faces pivotal stretch as former U.S. president returns to court
Jury selection in the hush money trial of Donald Trump enters a pivotal and potentially final stretch Thursday as lawyers look to round out the panel of New Yorkers that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former president.
Toxic forever chemicals in drinking water: Is Canada doing enough?
As the United States sets its first national limits on toxic forever chemicals in drinking water, researchers say Canada is lagging when it comes to regulations.
Where did the gold go? Crime expert weighs in on unfolding Pearson airport heist investigation
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
Biden scores endorsements from Kennedy family, looking to shore up support against Trump and RFK Jr.
U.S. President Joe Biden will accept endorsements from at least 15 members of the Kennedy political family during a campaign stop in Philadelphia on Thursday as he aims to undermine Donald Trump and marginalize the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.