No Chill: The 15 Most Offensive Tweets By Companies - Page 11

US Airways is only the latest in a series of companies that have tweeted something stupid, offensive, or otherwise just plain head to desk-worthy.

Whether it’s a “bro-grammer” whose white privilege let him get away with a mere firing, or it’s a kitchen appliances company who thought it was cute to offend a President’s dead grandmother, or even if it’s Justine Sacco (who deserves a category onto herself), it’s not just your ratchet Cousin NuNu or Struggle Rapper Pookie’n’Blu’n’em who just tweets through it.

Behold, 15 examples of how a corporate name can’t hide the ratchet…

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Photo: Twitter

15. Business Insider

God only knows what this company was thinking when they hired Pax Dickinson to be their Chief Technology Officer. This self-professed “bro-grammer” was so offensive in his racist & sexist tweets, it was almost an art form. What’s amazing is, it’s not the above tweet that ultimately got Pax fired from his position at Business Insider — no, the tomfoolery continued unabated until he tweeted about LeBron being better than Kobe, because Kobe only raped ONE woman while LeBron raped an entire city. Hysterical.

14. Home Depot

Nothing like a bit of good old fashioned folksy racism to get the crowd laughing! During their “College Game Day” promotion, the Big Box home improvement store Tweeted a picture of a drummer in a monkey suit between two African-American drummers, with the caption “Which one is not like the others?” It took NBC reporting on the offensive tweet & screenshots seen ’round the world before the company took it down. “We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive,” said Stephen Holmes, spokesman for the Atlanta-based company, before complaining that he couldn’t understand how it could have happened.

13. The Atlanta Journal Constitution

What happens when a lottery winner named Willie Lynch wins the lottery? It’s time to make a joke about slavery, of course! Seems like they’ll hire anyone to be a journalist these days — all it would have taken was a simple Google search on The Makings of a Slave for whoever was in charge over at the AJC to realize that MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, this shouldn’t have been tweeted.

12. Kenneth Cole

Because nothing says “revolution” like a shoe sale, Kenneth Cole posted the following offensive tweet on the day that the Egyptian riots began in 2011. Of course, not long after they got their collective tuchas handed to them in a million ways, the company removed the tweet and issued the standard “we’re sorry to anyone who’s offended” apology…while adding that you can still buy their shoes.

11. Entenmann’s Cakes

Timing is everything. This Tweet would have been fine on ANY OTHER DAY IN AMERICA…except on the day that Casey Anthony, in typical Florida “justice,” was found not guilty of killing her toddler, Caylee. Of course, that was the EXACT day that Entenmann’s decided to promote their fattening products…because nothing says “I want cookies!” like thinking about a Florida party girl who just killed her daughter & got away with it. Who wants crumb cake?

10. StubHub

This is EXACTLY why you don’t let the interns run the company Twitter. It’s a rare few of us that have careers that we actually enjoy (Note: Dear Moguldom Media: Your Humble Editorial Contributor loves her job and will always tweet about rainbows, cupcakes, & kittens whenever referring to its properties. Sincerely, BG.), and even the best of us get into that “screw you guys, I’m going home” head-space. But there’s a difference between thinking it…and saying it on the company Twitter. You already know what happened next: the company deleted the tweet, issued an apology, and “launched an investigation” into its origins. (Uh…try the company intern pool there, fam…no need to call the NSA for this one…)

9. The Golf Channel

With the exception of Tiger Woods, everyone who either watches or participates in golf is — more likely than not — a crotchety old white man who says such ridiculousness as “he’s pretty well-spoken for a colored guy.” So it came as no surprise that, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Golf Channel decided to commemorate the civil rights leader with an invitation to its followers to tweet about their golf dreams. (I have a dream that one day, I’ll make an eagle on the 18th hole…*facepalm*)

8. Gubernatorial Candidate Rob McKenna

We shouldn’t be surprised that ridiculous, offensive comments have come out of a right-winger’s mouth, but you know you hit an all-new level of offensive when you say something that even Republicans find offensive. But that was exactly the case when Kathlyn Ehl, a staffer for gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna, tweeted the following offensive comments. Right after the uproar, the genius child resigned her position. #byefelicia

7. Patton Oswalt

Patton Oswalt is a comedian on Comedy Central whose offensive proclamations count as “satire.” And as this tweet shows, this is what counts as “funny” these days (he apparently didn’t get the memo that REAL comedy is about NOT “punching down”). Then again, mainstream comedy is performed by short, fat white guys trying to be cool with their clothes from the Sears “husky” section, so this shouldn’t be too surprising…

5. Chrysler

This is what happens when you hire “social media strategists” who don’t know a thing about social media. This was sent out by a social media company who was handling a series of accounts, including the Chrysler account. When Chrysler investigated the tweet, it was discovered that it was meant to be a personal Tweet sent from a personal account. Naturally, the company was immediately fired.

4. AFLAC

At the time that Gilbert Gottfried sent these offensive tweets about the Japanese tsunami, he was the spokesman for AFLAC (actually, he was the voice of that annoying duck…AFLAC!). On the same day he sent the tweets, he was fired from his position…proof that not even celebrities are immune to the axe if they get out of line. (Although whether one would call Gilbert Gottfried a celebrity is debatable.)

3. KitchenAid

Three days before Obama became President, his beloved grandmother — Madelyn Dunham — passed away. KitchenAid, the maker of various appliances, sent out this tweet right before Obama took the Presidency the first time. You already know how the rest went — delete, apologize, “investigation,” blah blah blah…

2. The Onion

There’s very little TO say about this Tweet…except to remind everyone that, at the time she was called a “C U Next Tuesday” by the “satirical” outlet, Quvenzhane Wallis was NINE YEARS OLD, and did absolutely NOTHING wrong except be a cute black girl at the Oscars. Meanwhile, Lindsay Lohan can drink, drug, act like a REAL C U Next Tuesday by accusing an innocent black man of a crime…and she’s a “troubled starlet.” Shut up, Onion.

1. IAC & Justine Sacco

This was a tweet that, literally, was heard ’round the world. Right before she got on what would be a VERY long flight to South Africa, “publicist” Justine Sacco Tweeted the bit of buffoonery you see above. Now, we could get into a whole discussion as to why 85 people retweeted the tweet, and 22 people favorited it…but suffice it to say that IAC fired Sacco the second she got off the plane…but not before she was dragged for absolute filth in countless worldwide Twitter trending topics and having her name turned into a synonym for getting fired.

Bernadette Giacomazzo can be found on Twitter making jokes about your favorite rappers that may, or may not, offend you. Follow her at @berngiacomazzo