Corporate social media is a thankless job, and if you fail in any way, you have millions of people who see your mistake in real time. So, let's all silently send out our deepest condolences to whoever runs McDonald's Twitter account. On Black Friday, a tweet popped up from their official Twitter account that read, simply, "Black Friday **** Need copy and link****" Oof.
It's obvious that their social media team had intended for copy to go into the "need copy and link" space, but they failed to update their scheduled tweet. Which is totally understandable: Thanksgiving is a busy dinner night, full of catching up with cousins and watching some drunk family member make a fool of themselves.
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McDonald's quickly followed up their gaffe with a joke about not having had enough caffeine. "When you tweet before your first cup of McCafé… Nothing comes before coffee," they wrote. Nice save there, Mickey Dee's. It's tempting to poke fun at oneself, but that won't stop the tide of the internet from zeroing in on your spectacular mistake.
When you tweet before your first cup of McCafé… Nothing comes before coffee. pic.twitter.com/aPJ2ZupS9b
— McDonald's (@McDonaldsCorp) November 24, 2017
We're just impressed that McDonald's left the tweet up for the world to see. And we're hoping that the snafu didn't result in someone getting sacked.
Twitter, naturally, had a field day with McDonald's social media fail. Users offered to write their copy for them, expressed their sympathies to the social media staffer who probably lost their job, and wished the fast food giant a Happy Thanksgiving.
Wendy's for their part, sent McDonald's some serious shade even darker than the solar eclipse. Ouch. We're eyeball emojis over here. McDonalds' legendarily forever-broken soft serve machines have just been put on blast.
When the tweets are as broken as the ice cream machine. https://t.co/esdndK1iFm
— Wendy's (@Wendys) November 24, 2017
A truth bomb has been dropped.
Wendy’s got McDonalds good but they still selling square burgers on round buns so who really wins
— Craig Bro Dude (@CraigSJ) November 24, 2017
Activist shade right here.
McDonald’s employees ****Need $15 and a union**** https://t.co/3l2494dznT
— Fight For 15 (@fightfor15) November 24, 2017
At least someone sympathizes.
Social media managers reading this tweet pic.twitter.com/38cwM4wdNR
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) November 24, 2017
Aw, give 'em a break.
****Witty response****
— John Hipsher (@Hipsher) November 24, 2017
Could be true.
i feel like kanye wrote this, iconic
— Peyton (@Nites) November 24, 2017
Social media managers out there: check those scheduled tweets.
Social media managers checking their own tweet schedules now out of paranoia. pic.twitter.com/X3ABt1MB0d
— ★Jeff Fryer (@JeffFryer) November 24, 2017