It was just a matter of time before some tone-deaf brand used today, the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, as a social media marketing ploy. Amazingly, the guilty party was the Golf Channel.
This morning, as @jyarow pointed out, the Golf Channel tweeted:

MLK was most likely not talking about hitting the links when he said he had a dream. The Golf Channel has since deleted the tweet.
The Golf Channel is a property of NBC, which is running the broader “DreamDay” hashtag. But something about mixing golf programming and historic civil rights events struck many online as a catastrophic duff.
This isn’t the first time a brand has attempted to glom onto the historical and social importance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s groundbreaking speech. Last year Taco Bell shamelessly plugged itself in this dream-themed tweet.

Not to be outdone, Staples similarly used MLK Day as an excuse for this silly tweet earlier this year.

Image via Flickr
More in Marketing
The official judgmental map of Cannes Lions 2026
This map won’t tell you where to go during Cannes Lions. It will tell you where you actually are.
The definitive Digiday guide to what’s in and out at Cannes 2026
Here’s what’s in and out for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
As AI reshapes search, TikTok turns discovery into a performance pitch
The platform argues rising search activity is evidence that discovery is increasingly driving performance outcomes advertisers expect.