The Latest In Stupid World Cup Brand Tweets

To all brands trying to maximize engagement during big events: maybe you need to back away from that keyboard.

The World Cup has seen its share of stupid brand tweets so far, but it seems like airlines in particular have really been putting their feet in their mouths. First, there was Delta Airlines and the  ‘let’s use a giraffe to represent Ghana because Africa is a country, right?’ tweet. Yikes. That tweet was soon deleted, and was followed up with a quick apology tweet that included a typo. Double yikes!

The latest social media “whoops” moment comes to us from yet another airline: the Netherlands’ Royal Dutch Airlines, also known as KLM. After the Netherlands team secured a controversial last minute win against Mexico, KLM added insult to injury with the following:

The tweet was deleted without an apology or explanation, but not before roughly 10,000 people retweeted it and took screenshots. (Update: it looks like a KLM spokeswoman went on record to say “It was meant to be a joke. But there was too much negative reaction.”)

KLM’s tweet is an example of a great way to alienate customers, which is exactly what they did, as many users tweeted angry responses, with some even vowing to never fly the airline. Was the joke lost in translation? Maybe. But this just goes to show that just because your team thinks something is funny doesn’t mean the world will too, a tough lesson that many brands have learned the hard way.

The big winner in this situation was another airline. Check out Aeromexico’s classy counter.

This roughly translates to “Thanks for a great championship, we’re proud and await for you at home.”