#SUXORZ 2012: The worst social media screw-ups of the year
Each year, when Blogads hosts #SUXORZ at Social Media Week NY, we think its the last. We naively believe that corporations, politicians and celebrities will finally learn how to do The Social Media right. Lucky for the mob of 150 social media fanatics that joined us at the Gershwin Hotel on Wednesday night, 2011 defied and our optimism and was full of spectacular social media screw-ups.
This year’s SUXORZ panel was the final panel of the Blogads Social Media Spectacular. As in prior years, Blogads’ CEO Henry Copeland was the ring leader. Henry was joined by 360i’s VP of Emerging Media David Berkowitz, creative technologist and integrated marketer BL Ochman, DigiDay Editor-in-Chief Brian Morrissey, and sex & relationship author Twanna A. Hines.
The crowd showed up early to libate up on complimentary beer and wine, then grabbed their noisemakers and popcorn and settled in to jeer the best of the worst in social media.
Want to take a peak at SUXORZ? Maybe you were there and need a new Facebook profile pic. In any case, check out our SUXORZ 2012 album.
THE DECK
Betting on the worst social media campaigns of 2011 via noisemakers? Priceless #SUXORZ #SMWNYC
— Megan Grissett (@MeganGrissett) February 16, 2012
This is corn-based crack. Srsly. RT @dberkowitz: @NickBlogads this is amazing <bleep>ing popcorn #suxorz
— Brian Slattery (@BrianSlatts) February 16, 2012
ROUND 1: #tinears
These folks proved that it’s a little too easy to click that “send” button when you THINK you have a great idea.
Winner: Ashton Kutcher tweets pro-Paterno (and anti-taste)
Runners up:
- Brazilian condom maker, Olla Condoms, sends Facebook friend request from unborn children
- Nikon pisses off customers by saying on Facebook that “a photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses” and then refusing backing off
- Jockey asks on Twitter if Tebow can win your free underpants, is only RT’ed 26 times
I agree, @bmorrissey!! Ashton is a bad thing for social media. #suxorz #smwnyc
— Elizabeth Mee (@Liz2586) February 15, 2012
Condom maker wins definitely #suxorz
— Justin Mandaro (@PeckinTheFix) February 15, 2012
ROUND 2: Don’t Mess with Bloggers
What happens when you kick a swarming nest of bloggers?
Winner: Ragu spams dad-bloggers with video making fun of them
Runners up:
- Conagra (with Ketchum) misleads bloggers by inviting them to dine with a celebrity chef, then feeds them canned food
- Yahoo! exec CCes fired bloggers on bagel brunch invite
- PR guy calls The Bloggess a “fucking bitch” (Brian Morrissey flipped the script and nominated the Bloggess for the #SUXORZ for being “overly entitled” and not letting the issue go.)
ROUND 3: Fun with hash tags
“Hey, we hear there’s something called a hash tag! Let’s try to use one!”
Winner: Durex writes a seriously offensive #DurexJoke
Runners up:
- Amid the revolution, Kenneth Cole uses #Cairo hashtag to promote Spring collection
- Entenmann’s piggybacks Casey Anthony #notguilty trending topic to sell cookies
- Toyota spams Super Bowl tweeters to push its cars
#suxorz event is HILARIOUS… Posts re: #notguilty and #durexjoke have be rolling on the floor! (Not really though… LOL worthy for sure)
— Nikita(@Nikita_Ban) February 16, 2012
I wanna follow @entemanns and @durexsa thanks to #suxorz
— Tim Fogarty (@n0her0es) February 16, 2012
ROUND 4: Twitter Hijacking
Before choosing your brilliant hashtag or account name, make sure it’s not taken already in social media. And then make sure that people actually like you.
Winner: Netflix launches Qwikster without checking out @Qwikster, a king stoner, first
Runners up:
- To magazine’s chagrin, fake Cat Fancy Twitter account tweets awful things about cats
- #McDStories aren’t all positive
- #QantasLuxury backfires miserably
PALETTE CLEANSER: Well-Played
The #SUXORZ panel isn’t completely focused on failure. Here are some social media wins from the last year:
- American Airlines bashes back at bully Alec Baldwin on Facebook
- Heinz rebounds from e-commerce bottleneck, gives away LOTS of free catsup
- Freshdesk goes to war with bully Zendesk
- Tucker Max punks Izea
ROUND 5: Trying too hard
If you don’t really get social media, you really shouldn’t use it.
Winner: Woody Harrelson goes on Reddit, refuses to answer “anything” in an AMA (ask me anything) forum
Runners up:
- On Facebook’s behalf, Burson-Marsteller urges bloggers to write anti-Google op-eds
- LG (with Ogilvy) tries to hire covert blogger “brand ambassadors”
- Kayak pulls ads from “All-American Muslim,” calls show terrible, says “we’re not bigots…”
“If you don’t know what reddit is, they don’t even want you there.” -@dberkowitz #suxorz
— Jared Currier (@JaredCurrier) February 16, 2012
well it was only a matter of time until @reddit made its presence known – yikes. #IAmAfail #SUXORZ #smwnyc
— LBi US (@LBiNewYork) February 16, 2012
ROUND 6: Politics
Because politicians need to show how relatable they are, they manage to hash up social media, too.
Winner: Anthony Weiner… need we say more?
Runners up:
- Rick Perry shoots homophobic video in Brokeback jacket
- Pets don’t support Newt, no matter what his site says
- Dmitry Medvedev joins Facebook, gets bashed by Russian Facebookers
“Blow your horns for (Anthony) Weiner”. Learning so much about bad social media usage at #suxorz #SMWNYC
— Tory Marlin (@vlmarlin) February 16, 2012
“Medvedev is the Ashton Kutcher of authoritarians” says @bmorrisey for his off-brand move to Facebook #suxorz #SMWNYC
— Susan Halligan (@srhalligan) February 16, 2012
ROUND 7: Shut up!
Forgetting that social media is, y’know, social, these folks didn’t want to hear from their customers.
Winner: Boners BBQ tells Yelping customer to go play “hide and go f*ck yourself.”
Runners up:
- Chapstick deletes Facebook comments related to its ad featuring girl’s posterior
- Dr. Pepper starts a battle of the sexes on Facebook
- SapientNitro makes silly music video touting its expertise, deletes negative Facebook comments
Boners BBQ lol! #suxorz
— Audy Kramer (@audrickkramer) February 16, 2012
“Who the fuck drinks Dr. Pepper?” @funkybrownchick#SUXORZ
— Blogads (@Blogads) February 16, 2012
ROUND 8: Audience Choice
We asked the #SUXORZ mob what their favorite social media #FAIL of the last year was.
Winner: JetBlue places QR codes in subway, where no one has Internet access.
FINAL ROUND: DUREX VS WEINER
In softball tournament fashion, we split our nominees into two groups and had the audience vote via noisemaker, as they had done all night. Then we pitted the two round-robin winners against each other. After all was said and done, Durex was named the most unforgivable social screw-up of the year.
So durex is the wiener, sorry winner #suxorz twitpic.com/8kh0an
— aurore quercy (@auroreinthecity) February 16, 2012
So durex is the wiener, sorry winner #suxorz twitpic.com/8kh0an
— aurore quercy (@auroreinthecity) February 16, 2012
MORE REACTIONS FROM THE #SUXORZ MOB
We had another great turnout this year. Here are some more of the night’s best tweets.
Killin’ it. This is the best $20 I’ve spent in ages. RT @brianslatts: “hashtags are the new emoticon apparently.” – @bmorrissey #suxorz
— Sarah (@cicutoface) February 15, 2012
For reals winning the crowd addition #SUXORZ on my disdain for QR codes has me giddy. Thanks @hc @dberkowitz
— Don Steele (@donsteele) February 16, 2012
ton of paparazzi here – feeling both flattered and self conscious #usemygoodside #SUXORZ #smwnyc
— LBi US (@LBiNewYork) February 15, 2012
Thanks for the laughter and tears. #SUXORZ
— Amanda McCormick (@AmandaMcCormick) February 16, 2012
Check out Heidi Cohen’s blow-by-blow coverage over at SmartBlog on Social Media and Susan J Campbell’s wrap-up on her Copywriting Solutions blog.
Do you have your own favorite terrible social media blunder? Submit it to the SUXORZ Facebook group, and maybe we’ll trash it next year.