Let’s get real for a second, Pandas. I genuinely believe that we’re becoming more and more like a cyberpunk dystopia every single day. We’re developing ever more impressive technologies, but our quality of life suffers, as the wealth gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen. However, even in this dreary corporate landscape, you can find something to giggle about. Comedy, as always, is the silver lining that helps perk up our mood.
That’s where the r/CorporateFacepalm subreddit comes in. A cozy online community of just over 147k members, it has been documenting hilarious corporate fails on social media and in real-life since the early summer of 2015. In those 6+ years, they’ve amassed a vast archive of proof that even the biggest, most powerful global companies slip up from time to time. Sometimes, in such funny ways that we realize that the people managing the social media accounts are human, too. With human errors left, right, and center, too.
Scroll down for some of the most facepalm-worthy corporate posts on the internet, upvote the biggest fails, and let us know in the comments which of these you think are worth a gold star for the effort.
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"This Is Terrible Advice For Trains"
How Did They Not See That Coming
Pot, Meet Kettle
The ‘Corporate Facepalm’ subreddit runs with the tagline, “For all the ridiculous things your company does!” And it really helps humanize the large, often faceless, corporations.
They seem much more approachable when you realize that even the biggest conglomerates, rivaling even countries with their raw financial power and political clout, aren’t perfect. They can mess up in ways that look obvious to us. Then again, hindsight is always 20/20.
Celebrate Women's Day By... Thinking Like A Man?
I Have No Words
A Very Heartfelt Personalized Thanks
Rules-wise, r/CorporateFacepalm is very light on regulating its members. All they ask from their community members is that they “don’t be a jerk,” label any NSFW post and comments as such, and avoid posting any personal information. Information about public entities is fine, however, if you’re posting a “normal” person’s name, photo, or profile, you should really block that out to protect their identity.
The subreddit’s mods also urge their members to submit original content and avoid reposting things. “If someone posted it this week, you probably shouldn't post it again. If someone posted it last year, it's probably okay. We will review this on a case-by-case basis,” they share.
Waltonchain Forgets To Switch Twitter Accounts, Self-Owns By Posting As Winner Of Their Own Contest
Maccas In A Town Called “Yass”. It Took Them Years Until They Took It Down
This is near Canberra, the capital of Australia. We spell it 'a**e' here so it's just talking about a donkey for us.
A Nightclubs Response To A Drink (Possibly) Being Spiked
On a more serious note, however, we do have to keep in mind that the landscape of the job industry has changed a lot in recent years. Over a decade ago, we had one of the biggest financial crashes in human history. Meanwhile, we’ve been battling the Covid-19 pandemic for the past two years.
“We had the global financial crisis which led to many millennials who were employed being displaced. When the economy recovered, it changed structurally, and many quality jobs were lost," Eddy Ng, the Smith Professor of Equity & Inclusion in Business at Queen’s University, told me during an interview with Bored Panda just last week.
According to the professor, the 2008 financial crisis led to the emergence of precarious jobs, the gig/sharing economy, and the rise of digital labor. As a result, some people were unable to join the new economy. Income and social inequality were on the rise.
New Fashion Trend
Do Local News Stations Count?
Glad To Hear That
According to Eddy, some racialized groups, like Black and Brown workers, fall into a poverty trap, unable to climb out of it. Financial literacy isn’t enough to help people pull themselves out of poverty, though it might be a helpful tool otherwise. “You need to have the resources to, for example, access training and education," the professor said.
In the present day, we see that the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the very same income and social inequalities that the 2008 crash brought to light.
“Workers work more hours with lower pay in order to survive. That leaves little time to accumulate the necessary resources for skill upgrades or retooling for the new economy. This is the poverty trap I alluded to," the professor said.
Time To Rethink Your Brand Name
Blizzard Supporting People To Stand Up For Their Cause, Meanwhile
Criticizing the chinese communist government is forbidden, because it is bad for business. Supporting BLM is compulsory, because it is good for business. Companies don't have opinions, they have economic interests.
Thanks, Amazon
Financial expert Sam Dogen explained to me earlier that the reality is that some CEOs can get millions of dollars while average employees might be scared for their job security. There’s an extreme dichotomy between the fortunate and the average.
“CEOs have no magical powers. Yes, they have the operational experience to run big companies. However, they are often just spokespeople and ambassadors of the firm. One person cannot make that big a difference in a large organization. If Tim Cook from Apple steps down, the company will be fine. Another overpaid CEO will take his place,” he told Bored Panda.
Um. Retinal?
Ok Cristiano
Company Prints Message To Staff On Public Advertisement
Translated: If you would like to keep your job, start harassing our customers so they spend more money on useless stuff they do not need. (We are Sainsbury's).
“The reason why CEOs can get paid so much is due to the direct correlation of the size of the company. When a company is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, it’s easier to pay a CEO tens of millions of dollars a year, which comprised mostly of stock options,” the expert said.
“At the end of the day, the CEO and the Board of Directors’ goal is to provide as much value and returns as possible for its shareholders. And if that means firing thousands of employees, then that is what they will do. It is a sad reality of extreme capitalism.”
Who Needs To Flu Shot When You Can Have Flavored Water?
“We’re Number One!”
Bbc News Jumps The Gun With Its Reporting
Unfortunately the original post was probably re-tweeted about a hundred thousand times. The apology post 826. That's how social media works.
According to financial expert Sam, the employment situation is going to get more competitive in the future, as technologies change and globalization continues to be a powerful force.
“Now, a company can more easily hire a hungry person from a developing country who is willing to earn much less. The work-from-home trend is here to stay. The other trend we should see is more people becoming freelancers instead of full-time employees. The ability to work from home has created more solopreneurs who see more business opportunity taking on multiple clients at once.”
Bet This Went Over Real Well Reebok
Orangetheory Literally Photoshopped A White Dudes Face Onto A Black Persons Body In Their Telephone Training Program
Maybe he put a bag over his head while tanning. Or maybe the photoshopper had a bag over their head while doing an abysmal job at, uh, their job.
Yahoo Not Even Using Their Own Search Engine
Mcdonalds And Visa Partnered To Make This Budget For Fast Food Workers, It Requires Two Jobs And No Heat
Marriott Gets It
Washington Post Creates Page On A Women's March. Uses The Male Symbol
Congratulations! Also, Remember You Have A Brain Tumour!
Wow, People Must Hate Their Queso
"I like it. -I am sorry you don't like it, I care about your opinion."
Surely Nobody Will Mix These Two Up
Nivea's Now Deleted Facebook Post Was Quite Popular With The Alt Right
Well you know the conservative motto-"If it ain't white, it ain't right."
Wells Fargo Wants You To Get A Real Job
Feminist And Body-Positive Cosmo Promotes The Story Of A Woman's Cancer Recovery As A Beach-Bod Strategy
When people see old picture of me, 6'3 and 224lb (I was a healthy muscular man but wore baggy clothes), they always look at me then ask, 'Wow, how did you loose all that weight'... 'Sepsis! I had sepsis! I nearly died! But hey, at least it was worth it(!)'.
Ibm May Need To Update Its Job Applicant Page
I was thinking the exact same thing. Well, I stand 100% corrected: https://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-apologizes-after-its-online-jobs-page-featured-racial-slurs-2019-2
Load More Replies...The obvious and despicable "yellow" (wtf!?) there's also... Mulato? Isn't that quite an outdated and offensive term? (iirc, one that means mixed European/African?)
They should've add color pallete. And label it 'skin color' instead of 'ethnic group'. And accept only pure-white #FFFFFF applicants. Why hiding your racism, right?
And what job is this anyway? Something for KKK PR department?
Load More Replies...Caucasian is just as wrong too. That could be European. Or Indian. Or Pakistani. Or Middle Eastern. None of those folks share an ethnic group.
Even if it seems wrong, Caucasian is a real scientific term which has lost its geographic meaning (speaking about ethnicity). For example people from North Africa are considered Caucasian. It can be useful to know the ethnic type when studying a disease or a drug, because the effects can be very different. Of course there's nothing good in the IBM page... How could they even be authorized to ask such a question?
Load More Replies...Besides being idiotic, why do they as that question? I have never seen such question being asked here. I'm not saying there's no racism here (not even close, sadly) but as hiring employer you can't ask that.
I join the Air Force in 1997 I was listed as a NegroID. What the f**k is a Negroid?!
Why even asking that question? Attempting to diversify the team or what?
It looks like it was probably translated from a language other than English without being properly localized or vetted at all. A fail but far more innocent than it appears.
Half white, half black. It's outdated and offensive, so don't use it.
Load More Replies...Buuuut, aren't most of us indigenous? Just everybody from a different place?
Maybe they were talking about Native Americans/Canadians/Australians/Maori/etc? But yeah, you aren't really wrong.
Load More Replies...Funny how “yellow,” “red,” and “brown” have derogatory connotations while “black” and “white” do not.
I've had my back side tanned for referring to my friends' dad as black and not African. For some people it is derogatory. White people seem to prefer it. I think it's all in where you are and how familiar you are with people. Mind you this person was from Uganda so maybe it's because of that.
Load More Replies...I have a book character called Yellow. Which has nothing to do with asians btw
Isn't it illegal to ask a question like this on a job application? I thought it was. In North America anyway. Does anyone know the details on that?
Questions regarding race and ethnicity can be asked. You cannot be required to answer, for example, as a condition of employment, or assistance. Many US government forms have these questions, simply as a way of data gathering. It's not required to answer
Load More Replies...Old Ad From The Netherlands
Searching Apartment Complex Reviews When I Noticed Something A Little Fishy About The "Property Managers" Response
Black Friday
My Sister Received This Email From Zillow
Purell Making Fun Of Sick Kids
Wait, What?
Conservative Party Leaflets Circulated In Basingstoke, UK
Note: this post originally had 59 images. It’s been shortened to the top 41 images based on user votes.
"The ‘Corporate Facepalm’ subreddit runs with the tagline, “For all the ridiculous things your company does!” And it really helps humanize the large, often faceless, corporations. They seem much more approachable when you realize that even the biggest conglomerates, rivaling even countries with their raw financial power and political clout, aren’t perfect." No, it exists to showcase how tone deaf and out of touch with reality these faceless conglomerates are.
"The ‘Corporate Facepalm’ subreddit runs with the tagline, “For all the ridiculous things your company does!” And it really helps humanize the large, often faceless, corporations. They seem much more approachable when you realize that even the biggest conglomerates, rivaling even countries with their raw financial power and political clout, aren’t perfect." No, it exists to showcase how tone deaf and out of touch with reality these faceless conglomerates are.