Some people say they do their best spell checking after they hit the “send” button, seems like that seems to happen to more and more of us and it’s only more noticed now that our thoughts go viral on social media. This is when the “epic fail” comes into play. Many individuals and brands have been a victim of hitting the “send” button before actually thinking about what they’re putting out into the social media universe and the repercussions could ruin a company or at least their shiny reputation.
Example of epic fail in the form of an insensitive tweet from @KennethCole
Let’s get right down to the nitty gritty here are 10 epic fails that we couldn’t ignore:
10. A few years back suspected murderer, Casey Anthony was on trial for a very serious crime against her children and @Entenmanns’s definitely did a boo-boo by not checking the hashtag!
9. Buzzfeed reported this one: Out of context, this doesn’t seem so bad. BUT this tweet was sent during a PR crisis about horsemeat found in Tesco’s frozen meals.
Not the best time for that time-old saying @Tesco
8. McDonalds hashtag of the day went horribly wrong very quickly, #McDstories
This idea came after another one of their hashtags, #Meetthefarmer, had gone right. Unfortunately, the vagueness and openness of the second hashtag invited the critics into their home and got them comfortable.
7. Chrysler hired the wrong PR agency and found themselves having a side of EPIC with that FAIL
The “professional” in charge of the social media campaign at @ChryslerAutos wasn’t careful and Tweeted from the wrong account, causing his PR agency, New Media Strategies, to be fired by Chrysler and probably ruining his professional reputation forever. Social media doesn’t kid around.
6. Heineken tried covering its tracks with this epic fail, but the proof is in the pudding and in this case, the photo. The photo that shoes Heineken sponsoring a Thai pitbull fight, and caused outrage and Heineken to have to apologize profusely while losing customers.
5. Cooking site, Epicurious gave an example of what NOT to do in the wake of a tragedy; use social media for promotion “FAIL!”
4. Not sure what the Australian food chain Grilld was thinking by alienating basically the entire population under 50 with their NO SOCIAL MEDIA campaign. People responded right away
3. Celeb Boutique, @CelebBoutique chose the very wrong moment to promote one of their new dresses named Aurora. This was during the 2012 Aurora, Colorado mass shooting. They saw a trending hashtag and acted on it before checking WHY the hashtage was trending.
2. Not that the NRA is surrounded by love, but this just added to the pro-gun organization’s bad reputation. They obviously had scheduled posts that someone didn’t think to stop on the morning of another massive tragedy that involved guns.
This wasn’t taken lightly and had a large backfire from Tweeters.
1. The mega chocolate brand, Nestle, launched a new campaign with an instagrammed photo of a bear using KitKats as drumsticks to play the drums. Unfortunately for Nestle, they didn’t do a thorough check which would have resulted in showing them the similarities their bear had to the well know mascot for pedophiles, Pedobear. A definite EPIC FAIL!
These are just some of the epic fails out there and while they make us chuckle they also pose an important lesson to check facts, check trends and check yourself before hitting that “send” button. The world is only getting smaller and more transparent, consumers are smarter than ever, and keeping close watch on brands they support. Social media has a huge impact on a company and just as quick as it can build an empire it can tear one down.
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