10. tapping the groundswell with twitter

Fadra Nally is a mom. Her three-year-old son Evan is a regular little kid. Like a lot of moms and kids, they like to go to McDonald’s. Fadra gets a little break from her hectic schedule, and Evan gets a Happy Meal and a toy.

The toy’s important. Especially when McDonald’s puts superheroes into those Happy Meals. As Fadra puts it, “Evan is a mega superhero fan, and thus we must procure the entire collection.”

One day in August 2010, though, things went wrong at the mall in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Fadra and Evan go to McDonald’s. Fadra looked up to see tears streaming down Evan’s face. “I got a girl toy,” he said plaintively, showing her the Littlest Pet Shop toy from the Happy Meal. Definitely not ...

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