Tesco

The horsemeat scandal has been one of the biggest stories to hit the UK this year, and grocery giant Tesco was one of the most prominent villains/victims.

Food investigators found that horsemeat accounted for almost a third of its Everyday Value burgers, though to its credit Tesco did immediately take action to remove the products from its shelves.

Unfortunately its customer care team wasn’t quite as sharp, and had to issue a quick apology after failing to stop this pre-scheduled tweet from going out…

The Onion

The Onion’s satirical take on the day’s news often blurs the line between being edgy and just plain offensive, yet its owners tend to remain resolutely unapologetic.

However a tweet about nine-year-old actress Quvenzhane Wallis during the Oscars was deemed to be a step too far, and it’s not difficult to see why.

For those that can’t guess, the blur is hiding a four-letter word beginning with ‘C’.

The tweet caused a backlash on social media, forcing CEO Steve Hannah to issue a personal apology stating that the company was introducing new Twitter guidelines and would be “taking immediate steps to discipline this individuals responsible.”

Burger King and Jeep

Burger King and Jeep both lost control of their Twitter feeds after they were hacked by an unknown group.

The hackers changed Burger King’s logo and profile name to McDonald’s, before tweeting that the company had been bought out by its competitor.

It then took a turn for the worse, with tweets about Burger King employees taking drugs and other offensive material.

The company regained control of the feed shortly afterwards, and hopefully reset the password. Unfortunately the hackers weren’t finished, and swiftly replaced Jeep’s logo on its Twitter feed with a Cadillac symbol.

Starbucks

Admittedly this example isn’t technically from this year, but it occurred during Christmas 2012 which I deem to be close enough.

The coffee brand displayed Twitter messages that used the hashtag #spreadthecheer on a big screen next to an ice rink at the Natural History Museum, but forgot to actually monitor what was being posted.

Coming hot on the heels of the scandal over Starbucks’ UK taxes, the wall unsurprisingly became a prime target for angry taxpayers…

HMV

HMV’s mistake wasn’t that it accidentally tweeted something offensive, but that it forgot who held the keys to its Twitter feed.

The troubled retailer was forced to layoff thousands of staff after going into administration earlier this year, which obviously annoyed a lot of its employees.

One of them then decided to take out their anger by live tweeting a meeting with HR where 60 staff members were informed that they were being sacked.

Using the hashtag #hmvXFactorFiring the employee first announced that a “mass execution” was taking place, before revealing that the marketing director had a limited knowledge of social media and that the Twitter account was initially established by an unpaid intern.

Thanks to Gizmodo for the screenshot…