The South Carolina community has come together as #EllaStrong to support a Clemson family during their daughter’s fight against cancer. Bryan Bresee, a Clemson athlete on the football team, was supported by the Tiger community and team as his younger sister, unfortunately, finished her fight against a rare pediatric cancer.
Today, the entire Clemson Family is supporting Bryan, the entire Bresee family, and Bryan's sister Ella in her battle with brain cancer. #EllaStrong x #ClemsonFamily pic.twitter.com/l4pJR3yi1T
— Clemson Football (@ClemsonFB) September 10, 2022
The hashtag #EllaStrong took over on Clemson’s game day, Saturday, September 17th, as well as on Thursday, September 15th, as Ella Bresee passed away, finishing her fight against cancer. The sentiment over the social media platforms was overwhelmingly positive, according to Sprinklr’s data. Looking at Twitter, the South Carolina community came together to express their support for the Bresee family, as well as others who battle brain cancer. It is the power of the Clemson community that can come together for a family that is going through one of the most challenging times.
https://twitter.com/ClemsonFB/status/1571269591665451008?s=20&t=L6T6eFYdxeOoyohrVlEc_w
It was brought to the attention via Twitter by a Clemson alumna to the Barstool Clemson account to spread the word of a “grey out” for the Saturday football game against Louisiana Tech. With this “grey out” the attendees of the game would wear grey to show solidarity and support for those who are continuously fighting against brain cancer and for those who have lost their battles. Within a few days’ turn around, there was an eye-opening amount of grey worn during the Clemson home game; this emphasizes how quickly social media can reach large audiences.
Look at all that GREY! The Clemson Family showed out tonight and we couldn’t be prouder of the effort all the students, alumni and fans put out to make it happen. We love you, Ella and the Bresee family. https://t.co/jVdLhzXcTJ
— Barstool Clemson (@BarstoolClemson) September 18, 2022
The electronic word-of-mouth marketing spread quickly via Barstool Clemson’s post with over 600 retweets and 2000 likes. The posts were also shared on other platforms, and Sprinklr’s data analysis of #EllaStrong showed that between Clemson’s game against Furman and a week later against Louisiana Tech, 31.98M people were reached by the hashtag, and 7.36K were mentioned with it.
#Clemson coach Dabo Swinney saw a "beautiful thing in college athletics" with La Tech's support of #EllaStrong this week. pic.twitter.com/hxnRWu71FQ
— TigerNet.com (@ClemsonTigerNet) September 18, 2022
The players of Louisiana Tech saw word of the “grey out” and the head coach even wore a shirt dedicated to the hashtag. Furthermore, each player on the opposing team wrote hand-written letters to the Bresee family.
https://twitter.com/PFF_College/status/1571470843460423681?s=20&t=L6T6eFYdxeOoyohrVlEc_w
It was positively overwhelming (89% of the Tweets, to be specific) to see such a heartwarming response via social media for those impacted by this tragic loss. Ultimately, the gratitude and appreciation the Clemson community shows for each other will prevail on social media platforms.
Author: Louisa Glazunova
