10 most embarrassing Twitter blunders

Kenneth Cole raised ire by making light of the seriousness of the 2011 political protests in Cairo, Egypt.

In 2013, the brand fell into a similar problem by using the conflict in Syria as a cheeky joke to promote its footwear.

Justine Sacco

As a PR executive, Justine Sacco probably should have known better, but she tweeted a very off-color racial joke — that went viral — and then hopped on a long international flight to South Africa. When she landed, she was in the middle of one of the biggest social media firestorms of 2013.

Epicurious

Epicurious had to learn the hard way that in the midst of death and destruction, no one wants to hear about breakfast recipes. They apologized for their "insensitivity" (their words) shortly after.

Home Depot

A cringe-worthy photo of a monkey and two black men, attached to a College GameDay tweet in 2013 sent Home Depot into damage control mode. The company later posted that they terminated the agency and individual responsible.

SpaghettiOs

Even after 72 years, it's a good policy to assume that it'll always be "too soon" when it comes to pairing a smiling cartoon piece of pasta with a national tragedy.

KitchenAid

During a 2012 presidential debate, a KitchenAid employee mistakenly tweeted a bad, politically-slanted joke about President Barack Obama's dead grandmother, from the company's account instead of their own. It took eight minutes for KitchenAid to issue an apology and explanation for the tweet.

Kmart

Kmart was doing fine until the brand decided to tack on a self-promoting hashtag to the end of a tweet expressing condolences for the Newton, Connecticut shooting.

A disgruntled (and soon departing) intern took to ranting on the official Marc Jacobs account about his job and CEO Robert Duffy. The series of tweets included references to Duffy being a tyrant. The brand later tweeted some advice: "Protect your passwords."

CelebBoutique

CelebBoutique's obliviousness to the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting of 2012 proves the value of listening to what others are saying on Twitter.

American Red Cross

Another case of tweeting from the wrong account –– this time, an alcohol-related joke intended for a personal account –– had the American Red Cross explaining that they were, indeed, sober. The brand recovered, in part from some good humor. Dogfish Head beer responded, encouraging followers to donate money using #gettinslizzerd.