American Apparel in social media storm as it mistakes Space Shuttle explosion for “clouds or fireworks”.
Back in 1986, the tragic explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger just 73 seconds after lift-off provided one of the most distressing images of the late 20th century.
That image has now been misused in a social media fail by US clothing company American Apparel. A member of American Apparel’s social media team uploaded the image of the disintegrating shuttle to the brand’s Tumblr blog, probably as some sort of tie-in with America’s 4th of July festivities.
#Smoke and #Clouds
The Tumblr post was tagged “#Smoke” and “#Clouds”. It has since been deleted, but screenshots taken by Tumblr users are still available. Here’s an image of the deleted post, from Adam Davis:
The company issued an apology on Twitter
We deeply apologize for today’s Tumblr post… The image was re-blogged in error by one of our international social media employees who was born after the tragedy and was unaware of the event
American Apparel has a history of public relations blunders: Don’t piggy back ride on natural disaster
Short URL & title:
Just another social media fail of the century — https://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/nwr
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This was almost certainly a mistake as the company suggested, but the vitriol it caused is a reflection on the parlous state of the American Apparel brand. In their case, it was a drip-drip of bad taste and over expansion that has led the company badly astray.
Waw thats a big fail…No one thought at tumblr that this would be a bad idea? SHAME!SHAME!SHAME!