As Twitter buzzed with news of white smoke pouring from the Sistine Chapel and the selection of Pope Francis, who was archbishop of Buenos Aires, fast feeder Carl’s Jr. tried to capitalize on the news by tweeting:

White smoke over the Vatican = New Pope. White smoke @carlsjr = lunch hot off the charbroiler! #EatLikeYouMeanIt

— Carl's Jr. (@CarlsJr) March 13, 2013

White smoke seen at the Vatican? At Carl's Jr., it's just the charbroiler. #EatLikeYouMeanIt

— Carl's Jr. (@CarlsJr) March 13, 2013

The messages were tweeted hundreds of times, but received some backlash from people who thought the tweets were in poor taste.

Ugh, Carl's Jr. community manager. Why would you want to capitalize on the new Pope? ow.ly/i/1GeVJ

— Lauren Fernandez (@cubanalaf) March 13, 2013

Carl’s Jr. is following the trend of real-time marketing, in which brands try to harness the attention of a breaking news event. Oreo did it masterfully during the Super Bowl power outage.

RELATED: The communication challenges facing Pope Francis

A version of this story first appeared on the author's blog.