Trolls hijack Coca-Cola's new ad campaign with 'diabeetus' GIFs

Time and again, we see legacy brands attemptingto court millennialsonlinewithhashtag-centric, participatory social mediamarketing campaigns.

And time and again, we see those same campaigns get mocked, hijacked, and twistedbeyond beliefby people who use services like Twitterfor reasons other than being exposed to marketing messages.

Will the brandsever learn?

It's a question many have been asking for years, and one without a definitive answer, because many continue to "ignore the trolls,"much to their delight.

In February 2015, Coca-Cola was forced to withdraw its#MakeItHappyTwittercampaignwhen pranksters tricked the companyintotweeting outchunks of text from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Public health advocatestrolled Coke similarly in September of last year by ordering a custombottle through the company's#ShareACoke campaign. "Share a Coke with Obesity," readthe bottle's label which promptly went viral.

Apparently undeterred, the soft-drink juggernaut is once again asking people onlineto participate in an interactive global marketing campaign by creating their own Coke-themedGIFs.

GIFtheFeeling.comis a microsite that allows anyone to select a clipfrom Coca-Cola's new "Taste The Feeling" music video, overlay it with words of their choosingand share it on the social networks of their choice.

"How does Coca-Cola make you feel?" prompts the website when users first arrive. "Click on any GIF, type what you feel, and share it with the world."

Examples provided by Cokeincludewords like"excited" and "energized," but the vast majority of people sharing GIFsusing the campaign's hashtag are choosingcheekiertaglines.

As The Atlantic notes, Coca-Cola's "Profanity API" forbids manyterms from being used within theGIF creator curse words, descriptions of violenceand "diabetes" among them.

The internetdoes love a challenge.

Shortly after the GIF-maker went live last week, Twitter and Tumblr users began sharing their creations using both #GIFTheFeeling and #CocaCola.

Some are using the tool to obliquely slam Coke and bringup various issuesthat have been associated with its beverages.

Others have gotten darker with terms like "Benghazi" and "HeilSatan" and the names of various sexuallytransmitted diseases.

Social commentary has been popular, too.

Most people, however, have been using the GIF maker simplyto make weird, funnystuff.