Bob CollinsA construction company in La Crosse, Wis., is taking down employment billboards that featured a #NoSnowflakes hashtag, but not because of pressure.
The La Crosse Tribune reports Brickl Brothers used the billboards to find construction workers. It used hashtags such as #TrueGrit, #LifeSkills or #BoldlyForward.
And also “#NoSnowflakes,” which has become “a disparagement of spoiled, lazy millennials, and is often applied to political liberals, college students and professors.”
The term has its roots in the 1999 film, “Fight Club.”
The snowflake hashtag will be replaced on the billboards by a rotating series. Next up: #RegretNothing.
“The #RegretNothing hashtag is meant to convey that choosing a career in the construction trades is likely to reward an individual with useful, marketable skills and will definitely appeal to a candidate who desires frequent, strong and durable feelings of accomplishment,” Greg Brickl tells the paper. “People who cannot build admire and need those who can build, and that’s something of which to be proud.”
Brickl said reaction to his campaign has been positive.
“Of course, we have had some blowback from those on the political left who mistakenly believe our hashtag was politically motivated … It’s unfortunate that many of those folks seem to have no intention of accepting or even hearing our intended meaning, but I guess that’s the environment in which we live today.”
“I can see the market logic,” a University of Wisconsin marketing professor opined. “But they could have done the same thing without sticking their thumbs in the eyes of some people.”
