-
McDonald's #McDStories Twitter Campaign Gets Out of Control
McDonald's January Twitter campaign asked readers to tweet their own special #McDStories. The problem: people used the hashtag for horror stories like: "Fingernail in my BigMac" and "Hospitalized for food poisoning after eating McDonalds in 1989. Never ate there again and became Vegetarian. Should have sued." McDonald's had no way to control what people tweeted, and all the stories showed up whenever anyone clicked the hashtag. *Image: Twitter.com -
"Pink Slime" is discovered
People began petitioning to get supermarkets, restaurants, and schools to all stop carrying the slime, even though various consumer experts said it was safe. This PR disaster led to massive layoffs. Image: Flickr/Ryan McDonough
BPI eventually filed a lawsuit against ABC for $1.2 billion for allegedly making about 200 "false and misleading and defamatory" statements about the product. -
Taco Bell Employee Tweeted Picture of Himself Uriniating on Plate of Tacos
Even though the Indiana worker assured people that the plate was going to be thrown out anyway, Taco Bell dealt with the crisis immediately by firing him. *Image: Flickr/theimpulsebuy -
Penn State Covers up the Sandusky Scandal
Part of the PR disaster was due to Penn State's initial difficulty addressing the problem. Pulitzer-winning stories in The Patriot-News of Harrisburg initially uncovered the scandal in March 2011. But Penn State remained tightlipped. PR firm Ketchum was hired in November of 2011, and the school hired Edelman and La Torre for crisis management in April 2012. The school pledged to spend $208,000 a month for 12 months on PR support, but the damage was done. *Image: AP -
Chick-fil-A's President Bashes Gays
Chick-fil-A caused quite a stir when its president publicly came out against gay marriage. Dan Cathy, who also serves as the COO, told "The Ken Coleman Show": "I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.' I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about." *Image: Amazon.com -
Internet Exposes Burger King Employee Standing in Lettuce
Burger King addressed the PR disaster in a public statement regarding the chain's "zero-tolerance policy against any violations such as the one in question" and fired three employees for the incident. *Image: Geobeats via YouTube -
NRA Posts Insensitive Tweet after the Aurora Shooting
The tweet went up at 9:20 am EST and was taken down three hours later. A spokesman for the NRA stated, "A single individual, unaware of events in Colorado, tweeted a comment that is being completely taken out of context." *Image: NRA.com -
Apple Maps Was So Bad, The CEO Had to Apologize for it
CEO Tim Cook had to issue a public apology, conceding that the maps "fell short" before suggesting users download competitors' products from the Apps store. Cook specifically called out Bing, MapQuest, or going to Nokia and Google's website. *Image: Apple.com -
KitchenAid Tweets about Obama's Dead Grandmother
KitchenAid immediately deleted the quote and issued an apology via Twitter. *Image: Twitter.com -
American Apparel Exploits Hurricane Sandy
The retailer were offered a 20 percent off sale if they typed "SANDYSALE" in the online checkout "in case you're bored during the storm." American Apparel decided to ignore the PR disaster and didn't apologizee *image: americanapparel.com
