Mayan fever invaded social media on Thursday.

The ancient civilization’s calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012—Friday—which is creating a media-fueled frenzy that’s even spread offline. A school district in Michigan canceled classes on Thursday and Friday in part because of rumors surrounding the event as well as threats of violence, while casual sex seekers are on the hunt in New York because the end is apparently nigh.

Some had said on Thursday that there’s nothing to fear because it was already Dec. 21 in certain parts of the world, such as Australia and New Zealand. Too bad the Mayans operated on Central Time.

Of course, this nonsense was the talk of Twitter late Wednesday through much of Thursday, as tweets with (mostly bad) jokes poured in. For instance:

Mayan Guy: Hey wanna beer? Other Mayan Guy: I'm working on this calendar, but I guess if I don't finish it won't be the end of the world.

— Funny Tweets (@FunnyOrTruth) December 20, 2012

I feel like "Mayan Calendar" is going to be a really popular baby name in 2013.

— Grace Helbig (@gracehelbig) December 20, 2012

Meanwhile, a conservative blogger suggested on Twitter that Friday would be the ultimate day for a document dump.

The people managing social media accounts for brands wisely took part in the Twitter conversation, while a handful of companies launched marketing campaigns around the Mayan apocalypse.

Here are five of those brands:

T.G.I. Fridays

The Mayan apocalypse falling on a Friday couldn’t have worked out better for this restaurant chain, which is hosting a “Last Friday” celebration in Miami, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Orlando, Tampa, and Los Angeles.

It’s been promoting the big event across a variety of online channels, as well as through its website, which features a clock counting down to the end of the world.



Tide

The detergent maker broached an important end-of-the-world topic: laundry. Its tweet on the matter was a hit among its followers, with 99 retweets:

If the #endoftheworld is coming, do I really need to worry about stains? #TideToGo

— Tide (@tide) December 20, 2012

Jell-O

Jell-O went all out for the apocalypse, partnering with Someecards and enlisting ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky to create this video in which Jell-O is given to the gods for humanity’s salvation.



At the same time, Jell-O launched a Twitter contest around the hashtag #funpocalypse, asking people to tweet what they’d do if the world were ending. The company gave away $100 per day to a winner, for 12 days, ending on Dec. 20, naturally.

Red Bull

The energy drink posed a similar question as Jell-O in a tweet, which drew 422 retweets from its avid follower base:

If you only had 24 hours left on Earth, what would you do?

— Red Bull (@redbull) December 20, 2012

Kallman Worldwide

This New Jersey-based trade show organizer shared a note via Twitter from its president, thanking customers for their business as the apocalypse approached:



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