The English FA recently tweeted a pretty embarrassing attempt at ’well done’ following the English women’s national team finishing third in the the World Cup in Canada. But that’s hardly the first-ever Twitter faux pas…
The English FA’s tweet, which has since been deleted thanks to… attention, was pretty dismal.
It managed to grandiosely pat each and every member of the squad on the head, sending them on their merry way back into second rate existence.
This was not lost on many people who got their replies in long before the Tweet vanished.
.@england They’re still footballers too. Why don’t you go back to being a sperm?
— fleetstreetfox (@fleetstreetfox) July 6, 2015
@RufusHound Might as well have said – Well done our girls. What’s for tea? — Charlie (@C_Littlebug) July 6, 2015
Tweet for @England in 2018: Our #Lions go back to being nimrods and jumped-up shoe salesmen, but they have another title – disappointments — Stuart Heritage (@stuheritage) July 6, 2015
Why did you stop at daughters @england ? Sisters nieces aunts cousins 2nd cousins friends godmothers sister-in-laws wives ex-girlfriends… — Audioseal (@AudioSeal1) July 6, 2015
Mothers/partners/daughters – all women are good for. Thanks @england, so inspiring.
— Chloë Hamilton (@chloehamilton) July 6, 2015
Fifty Shades of Twitter fails
Of course, Twiter is a constant environment for PR fails, some more significant than others. For example, the author of Fifty Shades of Grey recently, and ill-advisedly, decided to do a Q&A on Twitter.
By using #AskELJames, fans – or not – got to seek out nuggets on the inspiration behind a book that has achieved the incredible in that it is equally mocked by both those who have read it and those who have not.
#AskELJames are you falling in love with all of the people that are abusing you over twitter tonight? isn’t that how love goes??? — rachol (@imawanchor) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames Does your own inner goddess look angrily at you in the mirror, singing ‘Money Money Money’ as shredded dictionaries rain down? — Cersei the Fair (@NiceQueenCersei) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames you do realize that if Grey wasn’t a billionaire, the 50 Shades trilogy would be one hell of a Law & Order episode? — Belial Bell (@AlwaysAnimated) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames what do you hate more? a) good literature b) consent c) women d) healthy relationships e) all of the above — captain emmarica (@PRESERUMPINING) June 29, 2015
#AskELJames How much money does a partner need to earn for them to be ‘romantic’ instead of abusive? Asking for a friend. — Chloe Dungate (@ScarfDemon) June 29, 2015
Party time…
The king of all PR fails, though, goes back a few years now. Back to a time when Susan Boyle was the flavour of the month, selling out tours and millions of albums on the back of a reality TV show that I can’t remember the name of.
Someone, somewhere in the PR department of her record label presumably, tried getting a viral hashtag going, surrounding the party to be had when releasing Susan’s new album. #Susanalbumparty, however, conjured up different images in the public’s mind’s eye.
Although images that were far more suited to the online, rather than offline, world.
Major discovery: #susanalbumparty was real! But it wasn’t this week; it was sent on October 30 (and quickly corrected): pic.twitter.com/W4iCzv4F — Is Twit Wrong? (@IsTwitWrong) November 21, 2012
It’s not just PR people at risk
Of course, sometimes it’s not even PR, sometimes it’s genuine news reporting that goes awry. For example, last week Sarah O’Connor, a journalist with the Financial Times, tweeted out a story about a man killed by a robot in a factory.
Her tweet went out the week that the new Terminator film was released. Her name is remarkably close to the protagonist of the blockbuster, Sarah Connor. This combination was not missed by many, forcing O’Connor to clarify on occasion.
A robot has killed a worker in a VW plant in Germany http://t.co/RRdCnNmbsj — Sarah O’Connor (@sarahoconnor_) July 1, 2015
@sarahoconnor_ @munitionsfamily She’s been waiting her whole life to write that article. — David Donohoe (@dvddnh) July 1, 2015
@sarahoconnor_ Ok. I should have thought about my name & its associations before tweeting this! — Sarah O’Connor (@sarahoconnor_) July 1, 2015
@sarahoconnor_ Sigh. I’ve never even watched the films. Now my feed is full of people tweeting me about skynet.
— Sarah O’Connor (@sarahoconnor_) July 1, 2015
@sarahoconnor_ Guys. I don’t know what skynet is. And I wouldn’t follow me – I tweet really boring stuff about unit wage costs and the like. — Sarah O’Connor (@sarahoconnor_) July 1, 2015
Feeling really uncomfortable about this inadvertent Twitter thing I seem to have kicked off. Somebody died. Let’s not forget. — Sarah O’Connor (@sarahoconnor_) July 1, 2015
Take a moment before your next tweet, people…
Main facepalm image via Jes on Flickr
