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9 Brands That Should Delete Their Account After That Tweet

We all make terrible Twitter mistakes. But these are egregious.
Andy Campbell
By 

Senior Editor, HuffPost

Every Twitter “scandal” has a similar progression.

First, a brand tweets an offensive or objectively funny thing, like McDonald’s did when its corporate Twitter published threw shade directed at President Donald Trump.

Then, typically, the brands will attribute the errant tweet to a hack or a rogue employee ― and occasionally they will issue an apology.

Last but not least, the rest of the internet makes fun of them or promises to boycott, and then we all move on.

But some Twitter campaigns should not be forgotten, because they are very bad, and also serve as a warning to the next generation of tweeters: Stop tweeting. Delete your account. You’re going to ruin your life.

Now come downstairs for dinner.

Love, your dad, @andybcampbell.

We digress. Here are some egregiously bad tweets by brands:

1
DiGiorno Pizza
In 2014, Twitter used the #WhyIStayed hashtag to talk about domestic violence in an open forum, after video was released showing former NFL running back Ray Rice knocking out his fiancee in a casino elevator.

It was not, and should never be, about pizza -- or any brands that don't directly assist victims of domestic violence. Delete your account!
2
KitchenAid
This tweet was sent out during a presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012. Obama's grandma died in November 2008. This tweet is offensive.

The company later said that an employee accidentally tweeted from the KitchenAid USA account, rather than their personal, and noted that the person was fired. But no kitchen appliance can clean up that mess.
3
IHOP
Pancakes are always good. Demeaning jokes about women are never good. IHOP is a practitioner of both.
4
Wendy's
Ah, the old we-didn't-know-we-were-tweeting-a-hate-symbol excuse.

Yes, Wendy's tweeted a picture of Pepe the Frog in 2017, and yes, that was their excuse. We're not sure why they tweeted Wendy the Frog in the first place, seeing as the picture is horrifying without the anti-Semitic and white nationalist connotation.
5
U.S. Airways
Reuters
We can't show you this one here, because it's extremely graphic. What we can do is give you the link to our story about the tweet from 2014, which uses a bunch of fancy technology to hide the image from you.

Basically, the airline tweeted to a customer alongside a photo of a woman doing terrible things to herself with a model airplane, saying, "We welcome feedback, Elle. If your travel is complete, you can detail here for review and follow up.”

The fallout from that tweet was legendary. You've been warned.
6
Durex
Yet another disgusting joke about women! Durex South Africa apologized for this one, but that's no excuse for a contraception company that should be celebrating sex, rather than... whatever that was.
7
StubHub
Stubhub
Heh. We actually take back our aggressive headline for this one. Everyone loves a good Half Baked moment, when an employee decides that they're ready to leave their job for other opportunities. We're not sure whether that worker was canned or quit, but StubHub doesn't need them - they're still making apologies on Twitter years later.
8
Oprah
Sometimes when you're nextifying your brand, you forget to nextify the brand you're supposed to be nextifying. Sorry Microsoft Surface, Oprah likes her iPad better.
9
Kenneth Cole
Millions are in uproar since Kenneth Cole invoked the Egypt uprising and Cairo hashtag to promote his spring line on Twitter. Cole himself later apologized on Facebook, but not before the rest of Twitter had its way with the company.

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