We’ve all had a brain fart once in a while and, depending on its nature, you can end up being the subject of light mocking or getting dragged for days.

In these companies’ cases, it’s definitely the latter.

From embarrassing ad campaigns to ill-thought-out tweets, their epic fails have landed them in hot water with members of the Twitterverse.

And believe me, the Tweeps out there didn’t hold back on their savage responses.

Take a look at five companies that incurred Twitter’s wrath, with info courtesy of The Huffington Post:

Absa:

Clearly someone at Absa thought it would be a good idea to tweet a poll about ‘black tax’ earlier this week:

But it wasn’t:

Per the report, Absa later apologised and said the poll tweet was supposed to include a link to a blog post, where an expert on the subject was interviewed.

Could have said so before all this got of hand, you know.

Dove:

The Dove debacle last year – which showed a black woman taking off a brown shirt, and morphing into a white woman – got Twitter users up in arms due to its racist implications:

Hopefully, Dove learned from this whole situation.

But this next company clearly didn’t get the memo about what happens when you create racist tripe …

H&M:

Twitter showed H&M all the flames when a photo from their ad campaign showed a black child wearing a hoodie marked with the words, “Coolest monkey in the jungle”.

The backlash was so bad that it prompted EFF members to ransack H&M stores in protest. You can find those videos here.

H&M apologised for any offence caused and removed the ad, but the damage was done.

Standard Bank:

Honestly, do any of our banks receive basic Twitter training?

Apparently not, as last year Standard Bank tried to promote its credit cards by using the #MakeAWomanSmileIn3Words hashtag on Twitter:

Wow. Did they learn nothing from their previous PR disasters?

Seriously, stereotyping women as gold-diggers isn’t going to cut it in this day and age.

Tweeps thought so, too:

My three cents: end misogyny now. Something some South African craft beer companies can learn from, too.

Snapchat:

How did social media giant Snapchat lose over R10 billion?

By advertising offensive kak like this:

The ad asked users to choose whether they would rather “slap Rihanna” or “punch Chris Brown”, as part of a game called “Would you rather” …

Brown was convicted of assault after beating, choking and biting Rihanna in 2009. He received five years of probation.

Of course, Twitter blasted Snapchat’s offensive take on domestic violence:

A special shout-out to BIC pens from a few years back – train, meet wreck.

For those in the marketing game, there’s a lesson to be learned here: think before you post.

Because if you don’t, hell no fury like a pissed-off Twitterverse.

[source:huffingtonpost]