Social Media PR Blunders of the Corporate World
Social media is a powerful tool for promoting your brand and building a strong consumer base. It can also damage your reputation if not used carefully. Below are a few Social Media PR Blunders of the Corporate World of the past few years.
Bank of America
Social media is often used by large institutions to showcase their human side. Apparently Bank of America’s “team of over 100 social-media representatives” missed that memo. Back in 2013 Mark Hamilton wrote an anti-foreclosure message in chalk in front of one of Bank of America’s branches in Manhattan before he was told to leave by the police. He took to Twitter with the following message: “Just got chased away by #NYPD 4 ‘obstructing sidewalk.’”
A few other people responded to Hamilton by tagging Bank of America’s Twitter handle. The bank responded with about half a dozen messages asking each commenter how they could help review their account.
“We’d be happy to review your account with you to discuss any concerns. Please let us know if you need assistance.”
Talk about out of touch!
MasterCard
A PR company working for MasterCard asked journalists to mention the credit card on social media to receive press credentials for the Brit Awards. The hashtag the PR company asked journalists to reference was simple enough: #PricelessSurprises.
MasterCard came under harsh criticism after the main PR agency promoting the awards ceremony said it had accredited hundreds of journalists to the events without requiring them to make specific ad-related tweets.
Telegraph Mandrake columnist suggested that MasterCard should have just taken out an advertisement.
“A lot of people on Twitter aren’t all that up on journalistic ethics. The sad thing is that a lot of journalists now haven’t perhaps been up through local papers and may not realise that this sort of thing isn’t ethical,” he said.
MasterCard issued a half-apology, admitting that what they required journalists to do was “highly inappropriate.” #PricelessSurprises did take off as a hashtag – just not the way MasterCard had envisioned.
JPMorgan
The hashtag #AskJPM was supposed to promote meaningful dialogue between JPMorgan Chase and its customers. Instead, it was used to lash out against the American banking giant for its perceived role in the 2008 financial crisis.
“How many homeless people did you create in ’08? #AskJPM”
“At what number of Billions of Dollars in fines will it no longer be profitable to run your criminal enterprise? #askjpm.”
A few hours later, JPMorgan said uncle by cancelling the hashtag all together.
“Tomorrow’s Q&A is cancelled. Bad idea. Back to the drawing board.”
HSBC
HSBC may be one of the world’s biggest banks, but it proved that it doesn’t always do its homework. Back in 2009 the company spent millions completely revamping its private banking marketing strategy. That’s because its US campaign message “Assume Nothing” translated into “Do Nothing” in many overseas markets. Hardly inspiring, especially during the fallout of one of the biggest financial crises since the Great Depression.
Barclays
In 2012, Barclays issued one of the most condescending Facebook campaigns ever. The company introduced a fictional character named Dan in an effort to convey basic financial lessons. One of the gems included:
“Say hi to Dan. He says he’s pretty useless at budgeting. We’re going to follow him this week to see what he spends, and work out where he can save to enjoy more of summer.”
All this talk about budgeting and financial responsibility certainly didn’t apply to Barclays, which at the time faced huge fines for interest rate manipulation.
US Airways
Not many people associate US Airways with online pornography, but that’s why Twitter is such a magical place.
“Unhappy that 1787 sat for an hour on tarmac in CLT because overweight, resulting in over hour late arrival in PDX…” an unhappy customer named Elle wrote to US Airways on Twitter back in 2014.
US Airways’ response:
“We welcome feedback, Elle. If your travel is complete, you can detail it here for review and follow-up: <picture>”
Sounds OK? Well, the picture that US Airways linked Elle was hardcore pornography consisting of a toy airplane and a naked woman. We’ll let you use your imagination about where the toy plane ended up.
American Apparel
The clothing company made an epic PR fail a few years ago during one of its 4th of July advertisements. American Apparel posted a photo on their Tumblr of what appeared to be cool fireworks. The photo was in fact not festive at all. It was the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986 that killed all seven people on board. The company quickly issued an apology, but not without facing harsh backlash. At least they admitted they had no idea what the picture actually represented.
Microsoft
Global software giant Microsoft proved earlier this year that it doesn’t have a full handle of its Artificial Intelligence Twitter bot. The AI bot was designed to learn from its users and make tweets accordingly. TayTweets, the AI bot in question, issued the following tweet on March 24: “@godblessameriga WE’RE GOING TO BUILD A WALL, AND MEXICO IS GOING TO PAY FOR IT”.
As you can imagine, Microsoft quickly pulled the tweet and sent Tay into early retirement.
What was your favourite PR blunder? Tweet me @Charli_Says
