Defining Moments in the History of Internet Fails, Part 2

Handle every click with care.

Sep 18, 2013

The Internet has done society a tremendous amount of good. It's connected us like never before, and has brought a wealth of information to the tips of our fingers. Yet, the Internet is a tough beast to tango with, and whether it's using social media, engaging with followers, or trying to sell a product, the web presents many potential pitfalls that could leave lives in ruins. Here we present some of the biggest FAILS in Internet history. And remember, the next time you're online: handle every click with care.

PREVIOUSLY: Defining Moments in the History of Internet Fails, Part 1

This feature is the second installment in an ongoing series.

Yahoo's Big Logo Build Up

For 29 days in August, Yahoo teased users every day with a new logo, leading up to their official new logo on the 30th day. Though the idea wasn't bad, the "new logos" turned out to be just versions of  "Yahoo" in different fonts, something you could have done yourself in Microsoft Word, and not anything innovative or edgy. So, after a lame 29 days, time came for the big payoff on Sept. 5th, Yahoo unveiled a logo that was as uninspiring as any of the other 29 they showcased. Many in the tech industry made fun of the logo, and many users thought it was a joke. If you're going to hype up a product: make sure you deliver.

American Airlines Tweets EVERYBODY

Back in the beginning of 2013, American Airlines promoted the fact that they would respond to each and every tweet they received. Each. And every. So when they would get, let's say, criticism, they'd respond. In an effort to be more engaging in social media, their plan left them as sitting ducks for the onslaught of negative tweets that began coming their way.

Qwikster

Remember Qwikster? Probably not, since Netflix got around to axing it pretty, um, Qwikly. Back when Netflix was trying to figure out a way to phase out DVDs from its subscription services, they thought it would be a genius idea to split the company in two, making Netflix the streaming choice, and Qwikster the destination for DVDs. (Which, at some point, would have been destined the company to die once the DVDs did get phased out.) Customers criticized just the thought of it as inconvenient and frustrating, and after a huge backlash, Netflix turned back the tables and dropped the whole Qwikster plan. Hey, it was a dumb name, anyway. 

(P.S. Thanks for House of Cards, Netflix.)

The Onion and Quvenzhane Wallis

During the Oscars this year, the satirical site, The Onion, had a momentary lapse in comedic judgement, and straight up called a nine-year-old girl a "c-nt." Seriously. During the biggest night of her life (so far.) It took about an hour for the publication to take down the tweet. But, like one critical tweeter wrote, "the Internet never forgets."

The Revenge of Amy's Baking Co.

Amy's Baking Co. of Arizona was featured on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey, and the husband and wife team of Amy and Samy Bouzaglo were subsequently cut after being deemed to difficult to work with. They soon attracted a ton of negative comments on Facebook and Yelp after the show aired, and the husband and wife team made the mistake of responding to the criticisms, which just added more fuel to the fire. The couple ended up saying they were taking down names of commenters and would be contacting the police for legal action against them. They soon found a subreddit that was discussing their meltdown in real-time, and the Bouzaglo's posed as Reddit users and claimed that the police had called them and told them to stop posting about the couple. (C'mon, you can't full Reddit that easily.) They finally took a break and went to the age old excuse of saying they were hacked, and were working with the FBI to figure out who hacked them.

If that makes you feel better, Amy and Samy.

Kmart and the Newtown Shootings

There have been plenty of times where a corporation has mistakenly used a hashtag to push a product without realizing it was trending because of a tragedy (Aurora). Worse than that is when a corporation knows full well that there is a tragedy going on, and they still try to push a product. This happened with Kmart, only six hours after the Newtown shootings. After sending out a sympathetic tweet, Kmart added the hashtag #Fab15Toys, a reference to a collection of toys they were pushing. Kmart tried cleaning up the tweet later by saying they were only trying to reach people who were checking the hashtag, but the outrage had already been sparked. 

Pat Robertson's "Gay Ring" Theory

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The famous televangelist, Pat Robertson, is known for regularly saying some homophobic and bigoted things on his television show, the 700 Club. But, recently, he totally lost his marbles when he responded to a woman's question by saying homosexuals have plotted to infect the world with AIDS by wearing rings that have the power to spread the disease. Even his co-host was taken aback by it. Video of the show quickly went up on YouTube, and the Christian Broadcasting Network, the channel which hosts the 700 Club (and the channel that doesn't know how the Internet works), filed a copyright claim to YouTube to get the clip taken down. Of course, this drew even more attention to Robertson's faux pas, with more copied versions of the clip sprouting up online.

Taco Bell's Screwed Up Launch of Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos

Talk about jumping the gun: in order to hype up there newest taco, Taco Bell announced on Facebook that the Cool Ranch Doritos Loco Taco (that's a mouth full) would be released a day early on March 6. The fast-food joint got a ton of likes on their post, more than 91,000, and when the day came, the people who saw the post didn't get their tacos, because Taco Bell didn't have them. Turns out all of the resturants didn't get the Facebook memo. Taco Bell got hit with a flurry of complaints, with one commenter wriitng, "I've never been more angry in my life."

A great moment in PR screw-up history.

Esquire's "Falling Man" Glitch on Sept. 11th

On the 12th anniversary of 9/11 this year, Esquire had a very, very unfortunate glitch happen: on one of their stories featured on their homepage, the famous picture of a man jumping out of one of the burning towers on September 11, 2001, (known as the Falling Man) was placed next to a story called "Make Your Commute More Stylish." People freaked out because they thought Esquire has purposely done it, but, as it turned out, it was just a glitch. Understandable. Yet, Esquire had to then follow it up with this unapologetic tweet:

Jimmy Kimmel Trolls the Internet

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We're generation Gullible. After a video popped up online that that showed a girl twerking upside down on her door, then falling onto a glass table when her friend opened the said door, it was all the Internet could talk about. Then, just a day later, Jimmy Kimmel invited the girl on his show, and revealed to the world that he was behind the viral video.

Internet: trolled.

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