A large batch of online trolls have gamed a web contest that promises a Taylor Swift performance at any school in the US. The target? Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Once users like Swift on Facebook, they can cast their vote for a school in the US. 4Chan and Reddit users heard about the campaign and encouraged their powerful digital hordes to vote in favor of Horace Mann.

Likely motivated by a deep-seated sense of irony, support for the campaign rapidly accelerated with more than 49,000 people voting for the Boston school as of Friday afternoon.

Observers were quick to criticize voters for being insensitive to the hearing-impaired community. Others argued that the prank has raised awareness of the community's appreciation for music, including the school's headmaster, who said he would be happy to have the 22-year-old songstress perform at the school.

"There are accommodations that make music come alive for deaf people," headmaster Jeremiah Ford told boston.com. "They have different abilities. They're not disabled. They're not impaired."

"It might have been done with malintent, and shame on them, but what a great opportunity for us," Ford said.

Contest sponsors textbook rental company Chegg and Papa John's pizza will also award a $10,000 grant to the music department of the five schools that earn the most votes. Horace Mann used to have a music teacher and have discussed reviving their music education program.

Voting runs through 23 September and the school for the hearing impaired seems to be in the lead. The rankings aren't publicly available, but when votes are cast for other schools the voting confirmation page shows how many votes are needed to catch the school ahead of them. For Horace Mann, this text no longer appears, indicating there are no schools to catch.

On Reddit, a user noted that a stipulation in contest rules allows Swift to back out of the performance if her management determines the chosen venue doesn't meet their standards.

That would be a bad publicity move for the star whose sunny demeanor and innocent lyrics are a key part of her marketing gambit.

In a similar attempt to mock mainstream musicians and twist the marketing arm of big business, a writer for alternative weekly newspaper Boston Phoenix encouraged readers to vote to send rapper Pitbull to perform in Kodiak, Alaska, population 6,256.

The Walmart sponsored contest promised a performance by rapper Pitbull at whichever store location received the most Facebook likes. When the Kodiak store was deemed winner, the rapper followed through, even inviting the writer to Alaska. He obliged.