United Airlines passenger removal
On April 9, 2017, United Airlines staff asked for four volunteers to leave an overbooked flight, in exchange for $800. When no one volunteered, security guards forcefully removed 69-year-old Dr. David Dao, breaking his nose and knocking out his teeth in the process. Footage of the incident soon went viral, sending United Airlines’ stock plummeting.
Bud Light – Up for Whatever
Back in 2014, Bud Light launched a campaign titled ‘Up for Whatever,’ which was supposed to highlight beer’s ability to engender spontaneity. This would have been fine, were it not for the fact that the company then started printing ‘The perfect beer for removing ‘No’ from your vocabulary for the night’ on their bottles, which was immediately criticized due to the role alcohol frequently plays in sexual assault.
Adidas Boston Marathon email
Shortly after the 2017 Boston Marathon, runners who’d finished the race received an email from Adidas, with the heading ‘Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!’ This was pretty tone-deaf – given that the race had been struck by a deadly terrorist attack just four years previously – and the email immediately went viral, leading to widespread condemnation and a groveling apology from Adidas.
Walmart – Halloween costumes
Walmart managed to provoke widespread disgust in October 2014, after the company labelled their range of plus sized Halloween costumes ‘Fat Girl Costumes.’ After getting swiftly and rightfully eviscerated on social media, the retailer hastily renamed the section of their website, although it kept the costumes on sale.
Dove – Body shape bottles
Dove has been pushing a message of body positivity for a number of years, but in 2017 the company definitely got a bit carried away. After Dove released a line of shower gel bottles supposed to represent different body types, it didn’t take long for social media users to rip the idea to shreds, pointing out that no one wants to buy products that remind them of their body shape.
Mountain Dew – Puppy monkey
Eager to replicate the success of their Felicia the Goat marketing campaign, Mountain Dew aired a commercial at the 2016 Super Bowl featuring an abomination that consisted of a baby’s legs, a monkey’s body and a dog’s head. The ad immediately went viral on social media, but only because everyone was traumatized by what they’d just seen.
Whole Foods – Pre-peeled orange
In 2016, someone tweeted an image of a pre-peeled orange from Whole Foods, accompanied by the sarcastic caption: ‘If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn’t need to waste so much plastic on them.’ The tweet went viral, and the internet immediately piled in on Whole Foods – a company that boasts about being environmentally conscious – for its wasteful practices.
DiGiorni – #WhyIStayed
Looking to capitalize on a trending hashtag, in 2016 DiGiorni responded to #WhyIStayed by tweeting ‘#WhyIStayed You had pizza.’ The brand clearly hadn’t bothered to check what the hashtag was referencing, which, as it turned out, was domestic abuse. The backlash was intense, and DiGiorni quickly took down the tweet.
Starbucks – Christmas cups
In a striking example of pettiness, outraged Starbucks customers took to twitter en-masse in 2016 to voice their fury after the company ditched its traditional Christmas takeaway cups in favor of a simplified red design. #boycottstarbucks soon started trending on Twitter, although a counter movement quickly formed, united under the banner #itsjustacup.
Uber – NYE Surge
On New Year’s Eve 2014, a considerably miffed Uber customer took to twitter to complain that his ride had been 8.9 times more expensive than usual. Other users started sharing their own surge charge experiences, and there was soon a chorus of angry voices castigating Uber for cynically cashing in on the celebration.
Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner ads
In 2017, Pepsi and Kendall Jenner ran a number of ads on YouTube featuring staged protests. The commercials were ostensibly supposed to convey a message of “unity, peace, and understanding,” but many felt that the soft drinks company was cynically trying to cash in on inflamed emotions in the wake of the protests that had recently rocked the nation.
McDonald’s – McDStories
Starting a hashtag is a bit laying playing with fire for big brands, a lesson McDonald’s learned the hard way. While trying to generate Twitter hype in 2012, the company gave customers the chance to share their #McDStories. This went exactly as badly as you’d expect, with people using the hashtag to share stories about food poisoning, bad customer service and strange items found in meals.
Volkswagen – Emissions cheating scandal
In 2015, Volkswagen was rocked by one of the most damaging scandals in history, after it emerged that the company had been fudging the results of its emissions tests. The backlash was immense, with VW owners the world over taking to the internet to voice their frustration and disappointment. The company responded by going silent on social media for over a week, a move which only furthered peoples’ anger.
Twitter #RIPTwitter
After news broke that Twitter was introducing a non-chronological timeline, users immediately reacted with outrage, and the hashtag #RIPTwitter soon began trending. Then-CEO Jack Dorsey personally tweeted in reply to the hashtag, clarifying that user feedback was being taken onboard, and the fury soon subsided.
Amazon – The Man in the High Castle marketing campaign
In an effort to promote The Man in the High Castle – a TV show set in an alternative future in which the Axis Powers won WWII – Amazon plastered the seats, walls and ceiling of a subway train with American flags featuring the German Eagle and Iron Cross. The campaign was quickly called out online for disrespecting Holocaust survivors, and Amazon hastily repainted the train.
FedEx – Throwing package
In 2011, a YouTube user uploaded security cam footage of a FedEx delivery driver casually lobbing a package – which happened to include a computer monitor – over a high fence. The video quickly racked up over seven and a half million views, whereas the company’s response only managed to get around 440,000.
Protein World – Beach Body Ready
In 2015, supplement brand Protein World launched an ad campaign depicting a toned model in a bikini, with the tagline ‘Are you beach body ready?’ The advert was immediately criticized for body shaming, and a Change.org petition calling for its removal gained over 70,000 signatures. The outrage even spilled into the real world, with a protest against the ad held in London’s Hyde Park.
Burger King – Women belong in the kitchen
To mark International Women’s Day in 2021, Burger King decided to highlight the gender disparity in the male dominated restaurant industry. How did they do this? By tweeting ‘Women belong in the kitchen,’ of course. The tongue in cheek tweet immediately resulted in a furore online, ensuring that no one actually understood Burger King’s well-intentioned message.
Wal-Mart – Black Friday rampage
Shoppers behaving in reprehensible ways is a traditional part of Black Friday, but a 2011 video of a rampage in a branch of Wal-Mart led to accusations that the shopping chain had created a dangerous environment with its deals. The store in question was in Porter Ranch, California, and the highly damaging video included a shopper wielding pepper spray to protect themselves during the chaos.
Chase – Motivation Monday
In 2020, Chase joined the ranks of big brands who have spectacularly failed while trying to get in on a social media trend. Jumping on the #motivationmonday hashtag, the bank seemingly blamed poor people for their financial status by mocking their spending habits, rather than acknowledging the tough economic conditions faced by many. After a rapid backlash, Chase acknowledged that the tweet had been in poor taste.
UPS – Hurling boxes
While a FedEx courier was court throwing a single package, a UPS driver was caught throwing all of them. In a viral 2011 video, someone covertly recorded a UPS employee hurling packages into the back of his delivery van, clearly without the slightest care if their contents made it where they were going in one piece.
Audi – Paid My Dues
In a social media campaign promoting its new Audi A3 in 2017, Audi ran a series of Instagram posts showing people at the top of their fields. The only problem was, they didn’t show any pictures of the car. People relentlessly mocked the carmaker for its ill-conceived campaign, with many users unfollowing Audi’s Instagram page.
Walkers – Wave
To celebrate the UEFA Champions League final, Walkers launched a campaign allowing users to submit selfies, which were then automatically added to an image of a photo frame held by soccer star Gary Lineker and shared to Twitter. There was no filtration system, however, and it wasn’t long before people were submitting images of famous convicts and war criminals.
Qantas – QantasLuxury
In November 2011, some bright spark at Qantas thought it would be a good idea to run a Twitter competition giving customers the chance to share their experiences with the airline, a day after a strike grounded Qantas’ entire fleet. Unsurprisingly, hordes of angry customers took the competition’s #qantasluxury hashtag and used it to sarcastically roast the airline with anecdotes of awful flights.
Coca-Cola – GIF the Feeling
To promote their new slogan “Taste the Feeling,” Coca-Cola released a GIF maker that let users create their own Coca-Cola themed GIFS. While the company compiled an extensive list of words that couldn’t be used, the internet inevitably found exceptions, resulting in hilarity like a GIF of a gushing bottle of Coke accompanied by the word ‘diarrhea.’
Dior – John Galliano racist rant
At one point Dior’s most celebrated designer, John Galliano seriously harmed the company’s image when a video of him going off on a racist rant leaked online. The incident took place in a French bar after a drunken brawl, and it led to Galliano’s immediate firing, with the fashion house taking almost a year to replace him.
Uber – Sexism scandal
A few years after Uber was roundly condemned for its extortionate New Year’s Eve surge prices, the company found itself at the heart of another damaging scandal. In early 2017, a former Uber engineer shared an online post detailing the rampant sexism she had experienced while working for the company, which included her manager propositioning her for sex. The post sparked widespread calls to boycott Uber, sending the company’s share price tumbling.
Entenmann’s – Not guilty
On July 5, 2011, Entenmann’s tweeted ‘Who’s #notguilty of eating all the tasty treats they want?’ On any other day, this tweet would have been completely unremarkable, but it happened to come the day after Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murdering her two-year-old daughter Caylee, a verdict many were outraged by.
Starbucks – Rant Song
In 2011, a Starbucks employee uploaded a video of himself singing a song about how annoying his customers were, while wearing only his green work apron. After flying under the radar for a few months, the video suddenly went viral, much to the chagrin of the coffee company, who promptly sacked the musical barista.
Papa John’s – NFL rant
Faced with dwindling sales in 2017, then-CEO of Papa John’s John Schnatter made the baffling decision to blame NFL players for kneeling in protest against police brutality. According to Schnatter, the players’ behavior was causing people to not watch the NFL and miss the pizza company’s advertising as a result. While the outlandish claim did attract attention, it definitely wasn’t the good kind.
Chrysler – F-bomb
It’s safe to say that more than a few eyebrows were raised when Chrysler tweeted ‘I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f***ing drive’. (The real tweet was uncensored.) It turned out the tweet had been sent by a recently fired employee of the ad agency used by Chrysler, which led to the agency itself getting axed.
Duolingo – Amber Heard
Duolingo is often praised for its pitch-perfect presence on TikTok, but in 2022 the company got a bit big for its boots when it tried to crack a joke about the ongoing Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp trial. Users were quick to call the company out for making light of a situation involving domestic abuse, and Duolingo hurriedly took down the comment.
Tampax – DMs tweet
In November 2022, Tampax sent out a tweet seemingly from the perspective of a tampon, which read: ‘You’re in their DMs. We’re in them. We are not the same.’ Unsurprisingly, people weren’t thrilled about the sexualization of menstruation, and #boycotttampax was soon trending. The brand then kind of apologized for the tweet, saying they wanted to get it out there before Twitter got shut down (Elon Musk had just taken over).
Kenneth Cole – Cairo
As Egypt was in the midst of a violent revolution in July, 2013, Kenneth Cole tweeted ‘Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now out online.’ The tweet – which was sent by Cole himself – was immediately condemned online, with outraged Twitter users calling for a boycott of the clothing company.
Urban Outfitters – Stolen designs
In 2011, a Twitter user shared a blog post accusing Urban Outfitters of stealing artists’ designs without paying them. The company put out a statement claiming they were ‘looking into’ the issue, but many felt that this was a lackluster response. Other artists soon joined in with their own claims of thievery, leading to a PR crisis for the brand that it completely failed to address.
Habitat – Mousavi
In a bid to increase its Twitter presence in June 2009, Habitat started spamming tweets containing trending hashtags. While definitely annoying, this strategy wasn’t particularly offensive, until one of the hashtags used was #Mousavi, which referred to the controversial Iranian Prime Minister whose election had just sparked violent protests.
Heineken – Lighter is Better
As part of a 2018 campaign for its light beer, Heineken started using the tagline ‘Lighter is Better.’ This might have been OK, were it not for the fact that this slogan was introduced during a commercial in which a bartender slides a beer down a bar, with it conspicuously sliding past several black people before reaching a white woman.
Prada – Pradamalia figurines
In 2018, Prada hastily recalled a line of black Pradamalia figurines with giant lips, after furious social media users pointed out how racist they looked. Prada responded by stating the figurines depicted ‘imaginary creatures not intended to have any reference to the real world and certainly not blackface,’ but the damage was done, with the brand hemorrhaging followers on social media.
Hyundai – Ryan Reynolds commercial
While there wasn’t anything particularly offensive about the 2016 Hyundai commercial starring Ryan Reynolds, problems arose after the official Deadpool Twitter account participated in the marketing campaign. Fans of the movie quickly took to the internet to express their outrage that the Deadpool franchise was being used to peddle family cars, although neither Hyundai nor Reynolds addressed the backlash.
Southern Rail – Let’s Strike Back
In an effort to turn public opinion against striking rail workers, British train operator Southern Rail launched a social media campaign asking commuters to share how the strikes had affected them. The company soon discovered that years of late services and overpriced tickets had eroded any goodwill, and they were roundly skewered online, leading to the hashtag #southernfail.
