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(#1) Twitter User Garbutted Made A Joke About A Missing Teenage Girl
Back in 2015, West Midlands Police sent out a tweet asking for help to find a missing 15-year-old girl. In horrible taste, a man with the username @Garbutted replied to the tweet saying: "If I find her I'll r*pe her."
He meant it as a "joke," but the police took him quite seriously. They told him they were passing on his information to higher authorities. The man quickly apologized and said he wasn't being serious, but soon had to delete his account because of the incident.
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(#2) Justine Sacco's Tweet Created Worldwide Drama For 11 Hours
The story of how Justine Sacco's one tweet became a worldwide sensation is truly incredible. In 2014, the then 30-year-old PR director posted the above (mind-meltingly insensitive) tweet before boarding a plane to Africa. She landed 11 hours later as one of the most hated women on the planet.
People across the internet banded together to call her racist, and demand she get terminated from her job. You'd think that someone who works in PR would have a better idea of what jokes are safe to make.
Normally, when you tweet something regrettable, you can instantly delete it when you realize your mistake. Sacco didn't have the chance, however, because of her 11-hour flight. As the hours crawled on, so did the furor over the tweet, and the excitement over what would happen to her when she realized the entire internet was against her. The hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet began to trend worldwide.
When she finally hit the ground, she deleted the tweet (and her account, for good measure), but it was too late. She released an apology statement and cut her vacation short, but was soon fired from her job.
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(#3) James Taranto
- Journalist
Following the horrific Aurora shooting incident in 2012, an editor at The Wall Street Journal by the name of James Taranto tweeted out this doozy. It obviously didn't go over well. He faced immediate backlash over his tweet, but the stubborn journalist stuck to his guns.
He called his tweet challenging, and started re-tweeting his positive and negative replies. He never apologized for the insensitive nature of his tweet, but he did later call it "ill-considered."
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(#4) CelebBoutique Apparently Didn't Hear About A National Tragedy
This tweet is worthy of a serious facepalm. During the tragic Aurora movie theater tragedy and the subsequent twitter trend #Aurora, CelebBoutique.com posted an insensitive tweet saying: "#Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K inspired #Aurora dress ;)."
It then linked to their website, where people could buy said dress. Once they realized why #Aurora was trending, they immediately deleted the post and apologized, but the damage was already done. Seriously, people, just do a modicum of research before you tweet.
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(#5) It's Not A Serious Domestic Violence Issue, It's DiGiorno
When Janay Palmer returned to Ray Rice after the infamous video leaked of him knocking her unconscious in an elevator, thousands of people took to Twitter using the hashtag #WhyIStayed to show their support for Palmer.
Among the tweets detailing intensely personal stories of domestic abuse, DiGiorno Pizza used it to promote their pizza. It's a classic instance of a brand not realizing why a hashtag is trending, and using it anyway. Of course, the company quickly apologized when it realized its mistake.
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(#6) Matthew P. Doyle Tried To "Confront" An Innocent Stranger, Was Later Arrested Himself
Matthew Doyle probably thought he would be congratulated for questioning a random Muslim "woman" about the Brussels terrorist attack, but obviously, his xenophobic behavior lead to an abundance of backlash and mockery. He didn't apologize, but he later admitted his use of the word "confront" was a bit too harsh.You know, because that was the sticking point.
He was later arrested under section 19 of the Public Order of 1986, which punishes "publishing or distributing written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting, likely or intended to stir up racial hatred." A day later, the charges against him were dropped.
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(#7) Roseanne Barr Sent Out A Racist Tweet About An Adviser For Obama
Rosanne Barr's Twitter feed is no stranger to conspiracy theories and questionable tweets, but her racist comment about former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett was the final straw for many. On May 29, 2018, the Roseanne co-creator and star tweeted about Jarrett, a Black woman who acted as a senior adviser in the Obama administration, and likened her to an ape, saying, "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj."
Barr swiftly received backlash from her peers and Twitter users alike. She issued an apology, stating, "I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and looks. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste."
She was not pardoned by anyone. Soon after, ABC announced that the network canceled Roseanne. ABC Entertainment president, Channing Dungey, said, "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show."
Barr said she was leaving Twitter in the aftermath of her comments.
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(#8) Police Officer Phillip White Aggressively Confronted Protestors, Got Away With It
Officer Phillip White of the San Jose Police Department got into some hot water when it was revealed he used his Twitter account to threaten and mock demonstrators protesting against police brutality. Things quickly spiraled out of control, with White facing the wrath of the community, as well as criticism from his department and his government.
He was put on administrative leave, but many people signed a petition asking for his complete removal. The people against him said he was hurting any chance of a peaceful relationship between cops and protesters, but in the end it didn't matter. He was reinstated, which obviously was badly received by those who wanted him gone.
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(#9) Jackson Murphy
- Film critic
In an attempt to be funny, teen film critic Jackson Murphy captioned his picture with Amy Schumer: "Spent the night with @amyschumer. Certainly not the first guy to write that." The young man immediately faced angry replies, calling him sexist among other things.
The worst response came from Schumer herself, who replied to his tweet, "I get it. Cause I'm a wh*re? Glad I took a picture with you. Hi to your dad." It was probably the most embarrassing moment of the young man's life. Within a half-hour, he deleted the tweet and apologized profusely.
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(#10) Golf Channel
- TV Network
It's a safe bet to assume Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't talking about golf when he gave his historic "I Have a Dream" speech. But that didn't stop the Golf Channel from trying to drum up attention on the 50th anniversary of that address. They tweeted out a message to their followers asking them to tweet out their golf dream using the format: @DreamDay I have a dream that _______.
The angry flurry of tweets condemning the channel for using the civil rights leader to promote golf led to the Golf Channel deleting the tweet and issuing an apology.
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(#11) Homebase
- Brand/Company
If you're trying to piggyback off a hashtag, you better at least try to sound sincere. When Prince died and the hashtag #RIPPRINCE was trending, many people wrote in commemorating the man and his legacy. Homebase (a DIY store chain), on the other hand, did something much more distasteful.
They issued a standard, cheerful customer service announcement that encouraged people to get in touch with them if they had any questions. At the end of the tweet, however, they arbitrarily threw on the #RIPPRINCE hashtag. The tweet was quickly deleted, but the internet was faster, and soon major headlines started to circulate accusing Homebase of exploiting Prince's death. They soon issued an apology for any offense the tweet caused.
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(#12) Entenmann's
- Brand/Company
One day after Casey Anthony was found not guilty of charges relating to her slain daughter, Twitter exploded with #NotGuilty. Amid all the angry messages and outrage, snack company Entenmann's tweeted out a message asking "who's #NotGuilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?!"
The tweet was rightfully met with a flurry of angry responses. No one knows for sure whether Entenmann realized why the "NotGuilty" hashtag was trending, but either way, it was a poor choice on their part that led the company to apologize and delete the tweet.
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(#13) The Republican National Committee Claimed Racism Was Over
This seemingly nice gesture was met with disapproval when the Republican National Committee sent out a tweet praising Rosa Parks for "her role in ending racism." The poor choice of words left followers angry.
Even though a few people tried to defend the RNC's wording, it created a torrent of adverse reactions and caused the creation of a humorous hashtag: RacismEndedWhen. Later on, the RNC corrected the tweet by saying they honor Rosa Parks "and her role in fighting to end racism."
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(#14) The US State Department Was Just So, So Sexist
In an attempt to sound hip, the U.S. State Department tweeted out a message that said: "Not a '10' in the US? Then not a 10 overseas." It wasn't long before people called out the tweet for being sexist and insulting. Even worse, the State Department quickly tried to defend their actions in response to the onslaught of negative tweets, but that just made matters worse.
When something like this happens, it never helps to try to fight back against it. In order to save face, companies and organizations need to just apologize and move on, which is what the State Department did a little while later.
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(#15) Bing
- Search engine
Never use a tragedy to try to increase your brand recognition. It's distasteful and tactless. Bing didn't realize this, and tried to capitalize on Japan's major earthquake disaster back in 2011.
They tweeted out a post that said for every re-tweet the post got, the company would donate $1 to Japan earthquake victims (but only up to $100,000). After facing serious backlash and being accused of exploiting a tragedy for marketing purposes, Bing issued an apology and donated the full $100,000.
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(#16) The NYPD Asked For Pictures With Cops, And That's What They Got
To try to help their image, the NYPD tried to start an outreach campaign asking people to share photos that showed good interactions with police officers. It was designed to help bridge the ever-widening gap between cops and the community.
Instead of good pictures, however, people started to use the opportunity to share photos of cops abusing people, and other pictures the NYPD probably didn't want posted all over social media. Many images included the cops wrestling with demonstrators, or swinging weapons at civilians. Their attempt at a peaceful Twitter campaign led to an even more tense relationships between civilians and cops.
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(#17) KFC
- Restaurant
Most high-profile fast food chains have a certain image and brand they want to maintain. As a major presence in the world, they want to be sure to not anger large groups of people. KFC, however, was just kind of like, "Eh, whatever, this'll be mad funny."
The company tweeted out a suggestive image involving a bucket of chicken and blurred out images. Once backlash started to pour in by the bucketful, KFC quickly took down the tweet and apologized for their "error in judgment" in a subsequent message.
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(#18) Qantas
- Airline
When you're trying to create a successful PR campaign, timing is everything. That's a lesson Qantas Airlines should have paid attention to when they decided to launch a campaign asking people to describe their dream, luxury in-flight experience.
It was a good idea to raise awareness, but it came just one day after its union ended contract negotiations. Shortly after, they grounded their fleet for a day, leaving thousands of customers stranded. The campaign shortly went off the rails, with people using the opportunity to vent their frustrations at the company, with tweets like"#QantasLuxury is dressing your staff in t-shirts that say 'We're Sorry' and believing that makes up for missing a friends funeral." -
(#19) Susan Boyle
- Band/Musician
Always read what you write before you post. That's a lesson Susan Boyle's PR team will never forget going forward. Before the singer's new album launched, her team sent out a message with the hashtag #Suanalbumparty to try to raise awareness.
Unfortunately, many Twitter users pointed out that it looked more like "Sus An*l Bum Party," rather than "Susan Album Party." The team quickly changed it to #SusanBoylesAlbumParty, but Twitter was already having a field day with the hashtag.
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(#20) Hillary Clinton
- US Congressperson
To try and help her brand, Hillary Clinton's administration tried to set up a social media campaign using #HillarySoQualified to try to get people on Twitter to explain why they thought Clinton would make a good president.
The hashtag was quickly hijacked by Twitter users, who turned it into a scathing criticism of the presidential candidate. People responded with things like "Fired from Watergate prosecution team for being a 'liar' and 'unethical.' #HillarySoQualified," and "HillarySoQualified for jail - it's criminal." To say that the Twitter campaign backfired would be a massive understatement.
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(#21) Chrysler
- Brand/Company
Apparently, whoever sent out this tweet under the Chrysler's official Twitter account was just having a really bad morning. After the incident, the employee from New Media Strategies (the company handling Chrysler's PR), was promptly fired. Of course, Chrysler quickly issued an apology.
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(#22) Penguin Books
- Publisher
This started out harmless enough. Penguin Books tried to start a Mother's Day Twitter campaign by asking what books people were getting their mothers, using the hashtag #YourMum. Because internet society collectively has the brain of a 12-year-old, the hashtag was quickly taken over by people making "Your Mom" jokes.
Penguin Books later thanked Twitter users for pointing out their hashtag could have a double meaning, but encouraged people to stay focused on books.
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