As brands rush to put out sharable content across social, PR slipups are inevitable, but even in the biggest disasters, there’s often a lesson to be learned. We gathered our ClickZ experts to rank the biggest fails of 2014.
10. Tesco
9. Victoria’s Secret
8. New England Patriots
7. DiGiorno
After horrific videos surfaced of NFL star Ray Rice physically abusing his wife, many women chose to tweet their own stories with the hashtag #WhyIStayed. Unfortunately, DiGiorno misunderstood the hashtag and used it to sell frozen pizza. Marketing strategist Krista Neher says this mistake could have been avoided by using simple common sense. “Never use words when you don’t know what they mean. This isn’t even social media advice. This life advice,” says Neher.
6. US Airways
5. FAFSA
The Federal Student Aid organization was aiming to lightheartedly encourage students to fill out aid forms by tweeting a picture of Kristin Wigg from the movie Bridesmaids with the caption “Help me. I’m poor.” Instead, thousands of offended students took to social media to decry the agency’s callousness. Andrew Edwards, managing director at Society Consulting, can’t believe such a mean-spirited tweet ever got approved. “The insensitivity charge is well deserved,” Edwards says. “I cannot imagine how this could ever have been deemed appropriate.”
4. Home Depot
In a tweet about College Game Day, the home improvement retailer tweeted out a picture of two African-American men drumming alongside another man in an ape costume with the caption, “Which drummer is not like the others?” Home Depot blamed the agency that sent the tweet from the account, which resulted in even more criticism for attempting to pass the blame. Jennings finds the incident as baffling as it was offensive. “Did they really not think through the racial implications? The response compounded the problem – a brand needs to take responsibility for things done on their behalf by the people they pay to execute,” she says.
3. Twitter’s Accidental Tweet
2. Redskins Pride
In May, racial tensions over the team’s name came to a head when owners attempted to rally fans by asking them to tweet at Senator Harry Reid — an outspoken opponent of the name — using the hashtag #RedSkinsPride. Instead, activists took control of the hashtag, using it to tweet pictures of neo-Nazi groups and historical phots of whites killing Native Americans. Jennings says this error was inexcusable. “This is an example of the brand not knowing their audience and not thinking through the potential malicious reaction. I can’t think of anything they could have said to smooth this over,” she says.
1. #myNYPD
The New York Police Department’s attempt to revamp its image by inviting Twitter photos featuring the NYPD quickly backfired when hundreds of users posted shocking images of police brutality under the hashtag. Edwards says the NYPD should have seen the controversy coming. “What did they expect? No one feels fuzzy and warm about the cops,” Edwards says. “This was an especially tone-deaf effort considering recent police brutality memes.”