Happy (and scary!) Halloween, friends.
We all love Halloween. Some of us go a step forward and create decors and costumes to create terror in the neighborhood. But, sometimes brands have involuntarily created their own season of Halloween on social media platforms. Especially, Twitter. This Halloween, we have rounded up with some of the social media nightmares for 2017. We know that if you aren’t using social media marketing to promote yourself, you are lagging behind in the race. But if you make a mistake, it is bound to become a social media nightmare.
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Social media mistakes that you must avoid at all costs when it comes to branding
Let’s us all learn our lessons from these brands and make the best out of the campaigns.
Social Media Nightmares #1: COCA-COLA
We know, the creative seems harmless. But, it created an outrage in TWO countries. All Coca-Cola wanted to do was wish happy new year and ended up featuring a snow-clad map of Russia without Crimea. If you thought that was the only oops moment, you are wrong! Russia was upset over it but when Coca-Cola decides to replace the map with the one having Crimea in it, Ukraine was agitated. Finally, Coca-Cola had to withdraw the ad apologizing for it. Social Media Lesson: Do the required research before any campaign goes live.
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Social Media Nightmares #2: SEOUL SECRET
This beauty brand launched a campaign named white makes you win (yes, that’s right!) to promote their skin lightening product line. Seoul Secret tweeted a video wherein the actress and singer Chris Horwang talks about how white skin helped her in being successful. We all know how well the ad did. Social Media Lesson: Always re-check your campaign for factual inaccuracies, hidden implications, typos etc.
Social Media Nightmares #3: Scroll Droll – Myntra
The creative spell took a wrong turn when ScrollDroll decided to feature Myntra in a Janmashtami ad. Religion is an extremely sensitive topic in India and ScrollDroll took the risk to use the most sensitive episode from Mahabharata to sell sarees. At the end, it was cleared that Myntra had no association with it but the content created a negative sentiment. Social Media Lesson: It is a risk to meddle with people’s belief, customs, and tradition.
Social Media Nightmares #4: Miracle Mattress
Holidays can make for an interesting campaign theme, but tragedies like 9/11 cannot (and should not!) be seen as an opportunity to sell. However, Miracle Mattress did exactly that. The campaign video showed an employee screaming and falling backward on stacked mattresses which were meant to show the fall of the twin towers. The store manager then shows up and says we’ll never forget It is no surprise that it sparked endless outrage and Miracle Mattress had to remove the ad apologizing for encashing on the tragic loss. Social Media Lesson: As a business, you should never use tragedies to promote your brand. Remember, you should not try to profit from anyone else’s loss. We know Halloween is around the corner, but let’s ensure we don’t have to do any such social media blunders to make our holiday season SCARY. And if you still end up making a mistake: admit it. The brands who realize their mistake and humbly admit it recover quickly. Do you know of any such social media nightmares? Comment below and share it with us.
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