With the US's unexpected victory over Ghana in the World Cup, many American made tweets and Facebook posts in celebration. Not missing out several companies decided to join in on the celebration and send their congratulations out. Delta, not quite thinking their tweet through, was forced to remove it from the website as it was seen as offensive and insensitive.
After USA's victory Delta tweeted an image of the Statue of Liberty with the US score, and next to it a picture of a giraffe with Ghana's score. While that may have seemed like a clever idea of how to announce the scores, Delta didn't realize that giraffes don't live in Ghana. Located in the sub region of West Africa, the kinds of animals that are found there are elephants, big cats, and monkeys. Having not done their research Delta went with a classically African animal, but that just made the tweet even worse.
After the picture was seen Delta was tagged in a number of insulting tweets ranging from calling them ignorant to asking if they will be making any more gaffs as the Cup continues. To try and stem of the tide of angry tweets Delta took the picture down and responded with an apology saying that the tweet "was both inaccurate and inappropriate." While this was meant as little more than a celebration it has slowly snowballed into an embarrassing episode for Delta to have to overcome. While Delta might feel like fools, they do not have to feel alone in this instance.
Esurance held a contest in February that involved using the tag #EsuranceSave30. What ended up happening however was scores of offensive tweets were linked to this tag. While the competition was held for publicity, it was noticed by the wrong people. Pr executives like Justine Sacco or Pax Dickinson have been forced out of their positions because of tweets that may have been jokes, but crossed the line.
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