Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
There’s no reward without any risk, and you can’t grow as a company if you’re not willing to stand out among your competitors. However, some brand publicity stunts and social media campaigns have been such painful disasters that it’s difficult to see how nobody at work saw it coming.
So many companies out there have made social media blunders, and internet users shared the most egregious examples in a viral AskReddit thread. We’re featuring the worst of the worst, the type of stuff that continues to haunt brands years later, and it’s painful to read.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Mcdstories. For those who don't know, about four years ago McDonald's started that hashtag as a way of encouraging people to share stories of all the warm, wonderful memories they have of eating at McDonald's. Almost as soon as they started it people were overwhelmingly using it to ridicule McDonald's, sharing stories of getting sick off their food or horrible experiences from working there. McDonald's cancelled the promotion after 48 hours but by then it was out of their hands.
The remarkable thing is that somehow other businesses learned nothing from McDonald's blunder, despite the huge amount of publicity mcdstories got. Probably the most famous case after that one was mynypd, in which the NYPD encouraged people to share pictures of them with members of the NYPD. As I'm sure you can imagine most people used it to post pictures of police brutality.
RELATED:
#2
The JP Morgan Twitter Q&A
Some of the better responses:
Does the sleaze wash off with a regular shower, or do you have to use something special like babies tears?
Did you have a specific number of people’s lives you needed to ruin before you considered your business model a success?
When Jamie Dimon eats babies are they served rare? I understand anything above medium-rare is considered gauche.
Do you have a secret jail in your offices so your executives get at least one chance to see the inside of one?
What’s the best way to get blood stains out of a clown suit?
Do your clothes fit better since you don’t have the added weight of a soul?
Can I have my house back?
#3
Microsoft made an AI twitter bot that was designed to learn from its users via conversation.
Within a day it was spouting off racist and inflammatory tweets and Microsoft ended up taking it down.
Broadly speaking, it’s very difficult to build up a positive reputation. It takes years of offering consistently good products and services to earn your customers’ loyalty. However, reputation is a fragile thing. It can be damaged very easily. All it takes is one social media disaster or public relations nightmare to put a dent in all of the goodwill (and profits) that you had amassed. It’s likely not the end of the company if you respond to the situation quickly and appropriately, but it will take lots of time and effort to rebuild all that trust.
PR Daily stresses that companies that hope to rebuild their reputation should do their best to accept that the narrative has shifted.
“Many organizations make the mistake of trying to control or erase the story, hoping the media cycle moves on — but you can’t undo the moment that sparked the crisis. What you can do is respond with clarity and humility and begin to tell a new story — one that demonstrates acceptance and growth rather than denial.”
Meanwhile, Forbes notes that the best thing you can do in a PR crisis is to act quickly to address the issue. Do not wait to take responsibility! The more proactive you are, the bigger your chances of making the crisis worse. Ideally, your corporation will already have protocols and chains of communication in place before any social media blunders occur.
#4
Dr Pepper had a deal where their slogan was "I'm a Pepper". It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but they apparently thought it was pretty good.
Good enough to give out shirts that said "I'm a _____!" where you could fill in the blank with whatever you thought you were, I guess.
The internet happened, and they had to stop the giveaway when people started getting shirts that said awful stuff with a Dr Pepper logo right there next to it.
It was beautiful.
#5
That Bieber World Tour thing where they let the fans of Bieber all over the world vote for him to come to their country, and 4chan manipulated the votes so that North Korea won.
#6
Malaysia Airlines, just a few months after they lost their plane at sea, posted a tweet something along the lines of "Can you find your next destination?"
Again they made another insensitive tweet. After over 500 people losing their lives on Malaysia's flights within months, they sent out a tweet asking costumers about their bucket lists...
According to Forbes, after monitoring the negative fallout online and in the media, companies ought to be as transparent as possible. They should take accountability for what took place instead of ignoring it or doubling down.
“If you’re getting a flood of bad reviews, find out why and figure out how to deal with the issues and turn things around. If there’s been a misstep on the part of the CEO or other company executive, make an honest statement, apologize and, depending on what occurred, take action.”
These crises can be a blessing in disguise because they help your brand identify any weak points and fix those issues. That should, in theory, lead to better services, practices, and products in the future.
#7
A company called Lobstergram once thought it was a great idea to run a Hanukkah in July special. None of the meat they sell is kosher. Lots of angry calls about that.
#8
Not massive, but made me smile.
The evil tax dodging Starbucks UK sponsored an ice rink one winter in London and there was a big screen that would post real time tweets with the hashtag #spreadthecheer, hoping for lovely, Christmassy tweets of people skating, enjoying their mocho choco crappos or whatever.
What they got was a barrage of effing and blinding tweets about how they were tax dodging, low paying bad coffee making scum.
Ah, the British public.
#9
Not all social media, but I worked for a chain and they were constantly trying to reimagine their brand and logo. So one day our restaurant got a huge box of new posters and work shirts of the new campaign where they were trying to push the fact that their flavors from all over the world that read the restaurant's name followed by "go somewhere else for lunch". This was all followed by a huge social media push for 6 months until they realized it wasn't working.
What are the biggest social media disasters and public relations blunders that you’ve ever personally seen? What are the worst things that you’ve witnessed company representatives or public figures say or do?
On the flip side, what are some brands that you genuinely trust and why? Share your insights with your fellow readers in the comments.
#10
So I used to work for my town's park and recreation department and I would get tons of emails (spam) from different tourist attractions in the area. One of which was a water park called "Sahara Sam's"
So I got an email from them with the subject "sAMBER ALERT IN AFFECT". The joke being a play on amber alerts for missing kids and the name Sam.
When I read the email, I remember thinking "this is gonna be in the news."
And it was.
#11
Probably the BBC when they accidentally tweeted that the Queen passed away. (It was a practice run so they just weren't meant to post it live to the world.).
#12
Bic pens posted a picture on Women's day saying this:
"Look like a girl
Act like a lady
Think like a man
Work like a boss"
They then went onto giving a very lousy apology:
" "We would like to apologise to all our fans who took offense to our recent Women’s Day Post. We can assure you that we meant it in the most empowering way possible and in no way derogatory towards women. We took the quote from a 'Women in Business' blog site. The blog site explains the quote and what its intentions were when it was written. BIC believe in celebrating women and the powerful contribution women make to our society."
Which caused even more uproar.
Ye Olde Dirty Grumpy 1 hour ago (edited)
Women are Men, Homo Sapiens. No one says lady gorillas differ from male ones. Theyre both considered gorillas
#13
This wasn't big in views, but regardless I loved it. The local shopping centre puts up displays and stuff, advertising the seasons fashions. Like "look at this woman, aren't her clothes great, here's where you can buy them".
One winter, white was the in colour. Some genius made the tag line "white is right" for that season's advertising.
Come buy some clothes and support white supremacy!
#15
When the hacker geohot tweeted the code needed to crack a ps3 wide open at Kevin Butler (old Playstation marketing guy) and he retweeted it to his millions of followers. I believe he thought the string of code was him playing battleship.
#16
2 years ago today, someone at American Apparel made quite the OOPS. They posted a picture of the Challenger shuttle exploding, because they thought it was a firework.
#17
It may not have generated the epic internetwide outcry a serious blunder can create today but back in the days I think the telco I work for topped the list of blunders [by literally providing all angry customers with tech issues an open reskinned IRC chatroom, unmoderated at night, in which customers did everything you can imagine
That fortunately did not last long.. still, its was a slow motion disaster that anyone who used the internets could have seen coming a mile away.
#18
My Ex BF was partly responsible for this tweet from Vodafone UK
"VodafoneUK is fed up of dirty homo's and is going after beaver".
He was in charge of the Twitter account and left his computer unlocked while he went to get a drink. His mate took advantage of the moment.
#19
Some employee of Chipotle posted that she ran over a cat and didn't feel bad about it.
Chipotle immediately began posting that this person's facebook was hacked, bringing high visibility to something that could have been largely ignored.
#20
AIB bank in Ireland held a campaign called "We're backing brave" aimed at getting small business customers to bank with them. AIB were one of the banks that were bailed out by the state to the tune of billions. The problem was they were not lending to small business people. If they were they required ridiculous guarantees, along with crazy collateral demands. One of the best things I've ever seen is how their promoted Facebook posts were destroyed by hundreds of small business folks who were turned down by them.
#21
Orion dev team.
"Guys Activision just shut down our steam page! We didn't do anything wrong! They've accused us of stealing their assets! Post this on reddit and get them to help us out. "
Reddit detectives quickly proved, with picture evidence, that Orion stole the assets.
#22
IFunny posted a picture of two 13 year old girls on Instagram posing kind of suggestively with the caption "jucy".
That’s all I yam 1 hour ago
Somebody, anybody, should have caught this. It's hard to believe someone actually came up with it!
#23
Well recently The Daily Show tweeted "Celebrate the #SCOTUS ruling! Go knock someone up in Texas!”. That joke didn't land well with....anyone.
#24
Some golf club in Wisconsin held a promotion a few years ago where you could play 18 holes for $9.11 on September 11.
#25
Here in my country the Philippines a big cola company made a huge "number" lottery blunder that made A LOT of people angry.
The story goes that if you buy their product and you get that lucky number you win about $40,000.00.
Problem was they printed A LOT of the winning number in their products and many Philippine people won.
#26
Shutterfly or one of those printing sites once sent me a "Congrats on your pregnancy!" email in a bid to sell pregnancy announcement cards, baby shower invites, etc. DH and I have been trying for years to get pregnant so that was hard. :(.
#27
I can't recall the company name at the moment but RIGHT NOW in Canada there's this commercial running for a company thanking Canadians for letting it be the company that donated the most money to charity. I just rotate between cringing and eye rolling until it's over.
StrangeOne 46 minutes ago
Telus. They're just bragging that they'll be getting a tax deduction when they claim it on the company's income tax. Never donate through a 3rd party.
#28
Canadian here, our old Prime Minister Mr. Harper had a twitter send off for his retirement. It was supposed to be an honor and about sharing good things. I'm sure you can all imagine how well that went.
Elladine DesIsles 3 minutes ago
Drat, I missed that one! Believe me, I'd have had some choice words for Mr Harper.
#29
A few years ago BBC Radio Suffolk ran a campaign on Facebook to determine Suffolks greatest icon. They expected to see Ed Sheeren or some Constable landmark. In stead rock fans flooded the voting with the band Crafle of Filth to make the them by far the most voted icon. inevitable they disregarded the vote and ran with some other landmark instead.
#30
Local Restaurant goes on a Facebook rant about having to pay its workers penalty rates. Calls the general public "idiots."
Given the small town hivemind that is Adelaide opinion, that place has been empty ever since.
#31
When the Rockets were about to finish off the Mavericks in an NBA playoff series a couple years ago, and the Rockets account tweeted out something like "Shhh it'll be over soon" and then an emoji sequence of a gun pointing to a horse. That didn't go over well.
#32
Twitter themselves hosting an AMA with their CEO when Twitter was in the middle of all that controversy regarding how they handle threats and harassment.
#33
I don't remember the exact details, but there was that band a few months back, maybe a year that tried to create a fake controversy over their music video being stolen or something and then did an AMA directly afterwards to capitalize on al that attention. The AMA went terribly and i'm not even sure if they're a band anymore, that blunder must have destroyed their reputation.
Explore more of these tags
Related on Bored Panda
