[imagesource: Twitter / @MissGU_]

On Tuesday, IOL published an article about a mother who couldn’t understand the “Twitter backlash after sending her child to school with non-alcoholic cider”.

While a few other South African news sites followed suit by covering the same story, using IOL as the source (exhibit A and B, for example), a “Savanna rep and some investigative work by eagle-eyed readers” turned the whole thing on its head.

Here’s the tweet by @MissGU_  which set the wheels in motion:

https://twitter.com/MissGU_/status/1393881069494153221?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1393881069494153221%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Flifestyle%2Ffamily%2Fparenting%2Fmom-cant-understand-twitter-backlash-after-sending-her-child-to-school-with-non-alcoholic-cider-78b79973-2a03-484a-804f-254c3e566c50

When IOL first reported on the above tweet, they included a number of replies, such as:

Training them early I see… pic.twitter.com/c31M6HG4Tt

— K.K (@KhumaloKhulani) May 16, 2021

They also included that Savanna made it clear that their non-alcoholic cider was not for sale for anyone under the age of 18, with a tweet sent last August:

https://twitter.com/SavannaCider/status/1291325336706326528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1291325336706326528%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Flifestyle%2Ffamily%2Fparenting%2Fmom-cant-understand-twitter-backlash-after-sending-her-child-to-school-with-non-alcoholic-cider-78b79973-2a03-484a-804f-254c3e566c50

Unfortunately for IOL, they forgot to check in with the Twitter user that they referenced, until it was too late:

Hi there, we did a story on your post yesterday and the response was out of this world. But someone pointed out that the post is fake. Can you confirm this?

— IOL Lifestyle (@IOL_Lifestyle) May 19, 2021

Then came the IOL follow-up, “Fake post alert: The real story behind that cider in the lunch box pic”.

You may have recognised the above as a meme from last year:

The original post surfaced in 2020 in response to Savanna releasing its non-alcoholic cider for the sober-curious drinker, and since then has spawned a number of memes on Facebook and Twitter.

Some examples:

https://twitter.com/danielmarven/status/1324548502526058498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1324548502526058498%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Flifestyle%2Ffamily%2Fparenting%2Ffake-post-alert-the-real-story-behind-that-cider-in-the-lunch-box-pic-c07e658a-e148-4eeb-9786-a51c3d5aa3e7

#skarasawaesenya

I decided to switch from Oros to Savanna lemon non alcoholic…I hope my child will like it#leadership #ChangeYourSummer #NdikhokheleRemix pic.twitter.com/rtzDPHLSrK

— Mamajane Jr_SA (@MamajaneJr) November 6, 2020

Now, @MissGU_ is cracking jokes about it all, referencing the ongoing Bonang Matheba lawsuit:

https://twitter.com/MissGU_/status/1394994133631176709?s=20

IOL’s follow-up story ends with this:

IOL Lifestyle has attempted to contact the person behind the @MissGU_ account. At the time of publication, there was no response.

Strange, because it appears they did get a response:

Hi, thanks for your response. Can I add your comment to our story?

— IOL Lifestyle (@IOL_Lifestyle) May 19, 2021

Iqbal Survé – if you know, you know.

[source:iol]