Crumpet company Warburtons became embroiled in a social media gaffe last night after it launched a celebrity-backed campaign with a hashtag used by furries.

The competition, endorsed by McFly band member Tom Fletcher, encouraged customers to post pictures of their teatime snacks on social media with the hashtag #crumpetcreations.

But last night it was discovered the hashtag is used by ‘furries’, a group of people who take pleasure in dressing up in animal costumes.

A member of the furries community, who take pleasure in dressing up in animal costumes

Tom Fletcher fronting the competition on Friday. The hashtag has since been edited so that it now reads #WarburtonsChristmasCrumpets

A woman in denim shorts and a Garfield t-shirt poses up next to a fence in a big cat costume

Three rather sinister-looking furries pose up for a photograph on a sofa wearing animal heads

Customers searching through Instagram were shocked to find pictures of furries posing in their costumes, which used the unfortunately chosen hashtag.

A woman who makes costumes for furries also calls herself Crumpet the Goat on Twitter.

The group were featured on Channel 4 documentary the World of Weird in 2016 and regularly meet for conventions across the country.

A mother wrote: ‘Hey Warburtons, the hashtag also belongs to a family of ‘furries’ and there are quite a few disturbing photos and videos.’

Singer Tom Fletcher helped Warburtons launch the crumpet competition on Friday.

The winning entrant will get tickets to see The Christmasaurus, a play adapted from the musician’s festive children’s book.

Warburtons built a dinosaur out of 2,500 crumpets to celebrate the release of the story book last year.

Last night the crumpet firm hastily changed the competition hashtag to #warburtonschristmascrumpets after employees discovered their mistake.

A spokesman told the Sun: ‘The world of social media is a wonderful and varied place. This shows how easy it is to get it wrong!

‘We’ll do a bit more research next time.’