Some might say that this tweet was made for me, some might say I’m appealing a bit too much to Telstra’s marketing, but Australia’s largest telco said ‘poggers’ in a tweet about the Pixel 6 Pro, so there’s no going back now, I have to commit.
Console-quality gaming on the Google’s Pixel 6 Pro: poggers. @imfallfromgrace pic.twitter.com/PJvUQyXtRq
— Telstra (@Telstra) December 22, 2021
The tweet, which was run as an ad on Twitter for the Pixel 6 Pro and featuring Telstra’s gaming creator Iamfallfromgrace, is a two-minute review of the new flagship phone. Grace’s take on the Pixel 6 Pro is on point, talking about its 120hz screen, its tensor chip, xCloud gaming and the phone’s mmWave technology.
We’re big fans of the Pixel 6 Pro here at Gizmodo Australia, with Asha saying she couldn’t get enough of it. We would have to agree that the Pixel 6 Pro is, in fact, poggers.
But does Grace say poggers during the ad? Nope, that’s on you, Telstra PR guy who runs the Twitter account. I’m assuming that it wasn’t just some “How do you do, fellow kids” moment from Telstra’s Twitter guy, as they go on to say KEKW in a reply to a cringing commenter, so hats off to you, pal.
(Side note, back in October, the telco’s head of gaming Nathan Gumley said Telstra wants to be our gaming partner, trying to avoid being “just a Steve Buscemi meme”.)
You might be wondering what poggers means. Don’t worry, I’ve got you. Though the most upvoted definition for the word on Urban dictionary calls it an epic word that can be used for anything (with a wildly incorrect use in a sentence), poggers is actually used to describe excitement, joy or hype.
It’s a word that originated on Twitch, used to describe epic moments when the streamer does something cool or involving a lot of skill. It’s also associated with Twitch emotes like POGGERS or PogChamp.
Lately, as gaming has become a bit more mainstream over the pandemic, people have started to say poggers more. It’s a common word that pops up in circles of chronically online people. Personally, I can’t stop saying it – it’s a really fun word and I’ve unfortunately brain-wormed it into some of the people I speak to.
In the context of Telstra’s tweet, the Pixel 6 Pro is poggers because of how well it handles gaming performance. That totally checks out – there’s a lot to be hyped about this epic phone with great specs.
Of course, reactions are mixed. Some commenters think it’s wildly cringe that Telstra would say such a harmless word, while others went along with it. It’s definitely jarring to see what some consider an underground word used in an advertising context from one of Australia’s biggest companies.
please never use poggers in marketing tweets again
— Kusoa (@KusoaTaken) December 22, 2021
Our verdict? It’s pretty poggers.