Cyber Week Sale:

Save 50% on a 3-month Digiday+ membership. Ends Dec 5.

SUBSCRIBE

Golf Channel’s “Dream” A Social Media Nightmare

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:
Screen Shot 2013-08-28 at 1.54.19 PM

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.
Screen Shot 2013-08-28 at 1.52.31 PM

Not to be outdone, Staples similarly used MLK Day as an excuse for this silly tweet earlier this year.
Screen Shot 2013-08-28 at 1.52.51 PM

 

Image via Flickr

More in Marketing

Future of Marketing Briefing: The tells and flops that will define Omnicom-IPG mega holdco

The real story will sit in how this newly fused entity behaves — whether it breaks from the patterns that defined both parents or simply scales them.

In Graphic Detail: CMOs at a crossroads of power and proof

CMOs are closing out another year defined by churn and shifting ground.

instagram eyes

As Black Friday nears, fake apologies from brands are all over Instagram

Brands have taken to social media in advance of Bliack Friday to ask followers for forgiveness. The catch: They’re apologizing for their products being too good.