October 10, 2026 · happened: on 13 December 2014

Media Markt and the “ruka”: how to own a 67-character crisis

On 9 December 2014 a user asked Spanish supermarket Alcampo whether they had “ruka” in stock; when the brand replied “¿que es ruka?”, he explained it was a crude joke. Two days later Media Markt tweeted its product list — “En Media Markt vendemos lavadoras, neveras, videoconsolas, tostadoras, calefactores y pistas de esquí” — and Alcampo replied “¿y ruka?”, handing the hot potato to a competitor. The word ended up trending, and Media Markt closed the episode on 13 December with this tweet.

«Lo de la ruka es la mayor crisis que hemos tenido nunca en Twitter.»

The clever part isn't the joke, it's the handling: Media Markt doesn't delete, doesn't block and doesn't get precious about it — it just acknowledges the mess with a piece of hyperbole that defuses the whole thing in one line. Calling something a “crisis” when it obviously isn't takes the sting out of it and shows the brand knows exactly what everyone is laughing at, without having to type the word it can't type. The timing matters too: it lands two days later, once the topic has burnt itself out, so it reads as a full stop rather than as fuel. The risky route was the other one — firing another gag back at Alcampo and extending a thread whose punchline is unprintable. Knowing when to stop playing is as much a community manager skill as knowing when to start.

Source: MediaMarkt España en X (tuit original)