It took just one tweet from New Media Strategies, a now-defunct firm the automaker had hired to be clever and funny online. “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to fucking drive,” read the post.
Leaving aside that Eminem is possibly the most proficient f-bomb dropper in music history, Chrysler came under fire for its four-letter propensities.
After issuing a boilerplate apology (“Chrysler Group and its brands do not tolerate inappropriate language…”), New Media Strategies fired its foul-mouthed employee, and Chrysler fired New Media Strategies.
Home Depot — Nov. 7, 2013
During ESPN’s College GameDay, Home Depot—a sponsor of the event—posted a photo on Twitter of three football fans drumming on the home improvement brand’s signature orange buckets. Two of the fans were Black and the third wore an ape costume. The Tweet: “Which drummer is not like the others?”
The blatantly racist tweet had reportedly originated with an agency employee—a detail that mattered not at all to an online audience in shock from seeing it. The company pulled the post almost immediately, but not before screenshots made the inevitable rounds.
On bent knee, corporate took to Twitter to apologize. “We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive,” it said. “Deeply sorry.”
Home Depot terminated the “individual who posted it” and, for good measure, the agency too.
Stone Brewing Company — March 1, 2018
As offensive tweets go, it was a three-for-one. In 2018, the maker of Arrogant Bastard Ale posted a message that likened drinking beer to oral sex, scoffed at the idea of informed consent—and posted this viewpoint just before Women’s History Month.
