2013 – Social media blunders of the year
1. Social media erupted over the rebranding of Fairfax Media’s female-focused section Daily Life to ‘Women’s Perspective’. The move, part of a redesign of smh.com.au and theage.com.au to coincide with the switch of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age to compact format, was howled down. Sarah Oakes, editor of Daily Life, wrote a piece explaining that her bosses had overruled her opposition to the rebranding. Daily Life contributor Clementine Ford Tweeted “Can’t find @DailyLifeAu on @theage’s new homepage? Just scroll all the way down to the 1950s where you’ll find it under #womensperspective”. Fairfax Media got the message changing the name back to ‘Daily Life’ after only a day.
2. Sydney PR agency Porter Novelli’s attempt to create buzz by hiring a new staff member via Twitter backfired when users poking fun at the company’s attempt to establish its social media credentials hijacked the #SocialCV hashtag. The hashtag did trend but for all the wrong reasons. Comments included: “So, who’s the bigger dickhead; Telstra for recently revealing five day job interviews or #socialCV for offering a job for a 140 character tweet?”
3. Myer was forced to apologise for comments made by CEO Bernie Brookes criticising the government’s proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme after a major social media backlash. Brookes told the media that a $350 increase in the Medicare levy would hurt retailers as the levy: “is something they would have spent with us”. One response on Facebook read: “What you’re really saying is that the more money spent on the most vulnerable and needy in our community, the less can be spent consuming at Myer. You’re sounding more like a greedy corporation than an Australian business with values and a sense of community. What a disgrace.”
4. Australian online shopping site Sellitonline.com.au had to apologise for using the Tasmanian bush fire crisis to try and increase its number of followers on Facebook. The site promised to donate generators to help those in the state without power but only if there were enough ‘likes’ for the page. The opportunistic site was quickly told where to go over it’s donation-with-a-catch. One Facebook user wrote: “Fuck off with your opportunistic marketing trying to take advantage of other people’s tragedy. If you were any decent company you’d just be putting a message up saying you were donating x amount and earning some kudos.”
5. Melbourne underwear company Kayser
Lingerie faced calls for a consumer boycott after posting an ill-conceived Tweet which suggested a movie date equated to a sexual encounter. Comedian Helen Razor Tweeted: “I will never again purchase your garments. And baby, I go through hosiery like there’s no tomorrow.” A spokeswoman for Get Glossy, the social media agency that looks after the brand’s social strategy, defended the post, saying: “It was meant to be a girl-to-girl thing, something fun and it’s a shame it was taken by some people to mean something it was never intended to.”
6. A Fox8 promotion for Australia’s Next Top Model urging people to take ‘selfies’ and post them on Instagram was hijacked by a group of feminist activists launching the hashtag #NextTopPredator. The activists claimed girls, as young as nine, were posting images of themselves in sexual poses and urged people to instead enter the competition with positive messages.
7. Domino’s CEO Don Meij was forced to take to Facebook to defend his “game changing” teaser campaign which proved to be no more than a new range of pizzas with premium toppings. Consumers took to social media suggesting they had been misled and expected something more dramatic. One Tweet read: “You spammed us for a week over this? Fire your marketing team.”
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