Ad or Not? NCAA UConn Women Champs Edition

Shortly after the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team won its 11th national title April 5, defeating Syracuse for its fourth consecutive NCAA championship, team members had some fun taking selfies with a very conspicuous Twitter Mirror.

Not only did the players hold the mirror on stage in the national spotlight as they received the championship trophy, but they actively took pictures with it on the court at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

In fact, photos of the team using the Twitter Mirror during games leading to the final made it into several newspapers. Members of the UConn basketball team, according to one report, do not tweet during the regular season. But as soon as the team won the American Athletic Conference Tournament March 7, the women athletes were out on the court using the Twitter Mirror to pose for pictures and videos. The Twitter Mirror allows users to take a selfie that is then sent out over the event’s Twitter feed.

A spokesperson for UConn said the Twitter Mirror was given to the team by the American Athletic Conference for players to take pictures for the conference’s Twitter feed.

Chuck Sullivan, a spokesman for the conference, said the mirror was given to the conference by Twitter to use throughout the year. He said there was no strings attached, though.

“There is no directive (either implied or otherwise implied) to have the device appear on the telecasts of our teams’ games,” said Sullivan.

Either way, it was very good free publicity for Twitter.

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