When Brands Burn: 6 Risky Twitter Convos That Worked

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On social media, brands need to be hyper-aware of their tone of voice. They need to be courteous and polite, especially when dealing with unhappy customers. Businesses need to take an extra second, read over their social messaging, and consider any possible negative consequences of whatever they’re sharing. These rules are used by major brands to ensure they don’t damage their reputation on social media. Except when they’re not used… or even deliberately ignored by brands who decide to show some sass.

It’s rare, but every once in a while businesses decide to get really sassy on Twitter. So sassy, in fact, that they’ll go so far as to burn another brand or, gasp, a client.

I need to emphasize this: we DO NOT recommend this strategy for your business. Throwing out an insult on Twitter is extremely risky, even if it’s meant to be in good fun. Just ask the folks at Hawke and Co. While showing your personality and humor is important, there is a line, and crossing it can mean big consequences. Again, we’re telling you not to do this!

However, several brands have been unable to pass up on opportunities for a good burn. In the following six situations, it definitely paid off.

Tesco Mobile tells a hard truth

Tesco Mobile, a UK-based mobile network, is probably the sassiest brands on Twitter. They’ve earned a reputation for handing out some vicious burns, to the delight of their nearly 80,000 followers.

It was hard to choose the best Tesco Mobile burn. There are a lot of them. But this one stands out due to its reach.

Over 11,000 retweets and over 7,000 favorites should be enough to convince you that Tesco has the Twitter burn down to a science. They didn’t pick someone complaining about their product or customer service. They sought out someone trying to make a joke at their expense, and decided to defend their brand in an extremely relatable way: with a third degree burn right out of the school yard. People have started following Tesco specifically because of the guile they show in conversations with their ‘haters.’ How many cell phone companies do you follow? Probably only the one you use. Tesco’s approach has allowed them to connect with a wider audience, including many non-clients. I couldn’t resist, here’s another one.

Call the fire department!

Brand Burns Kelso

Discovery Channel teaches the Penguins a lesson

How did a simple Tweet from the Discovery Channel turn into an awesome burn lauded by hockey fans? It all comes down to the innocent penguin.

This spring, Discovery sent out a Tweet on the average height of the emperor penguin.

The Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team saw it as an opportunity to maybe spark some interesting social media conversations. They responded with a Tweet of their own, on the average height of a Pittsburgh Penguin. Clever… except in retrospect, since it lead to this amazing comeback.


A little context: the Penguins had, only a few weeks earlier, been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. Maybe Discovery’s social media manager is a hockey fan of a different breed? Either way, a network that is known for providing educational programming definitely taught the Penguins a lesson. And it paid off to the tune of 31,000 retweets and 34,000 favorites.

Brand Burns Community

Smart Car proves how smart it really is

Smart cars don’t necessarily have appeal among much of the population, most of whom prefer driving something a little bigger. The small size of these cars has made them the butt of jokes ever since they were first introduced. Rather than take offense, the company is pretty good at letting things slide. But, just this once, they decided to take on a stupid joke about their product.

Smart Car Twitter Science

‘Oh our cars can be destroyed by bird poop can they? Maybe they can, but it would take 45,000 emus to make it happen. You and your joke have just been scienced. Good day.’

This isn’t so much a traditional burn as it is a mic drop moment. They took a joke made at their expense, proved they were paying attention, and actually transformed it into a brand win. If there was a Tweet in this list that you might actually want to mimic, this would be the one.

DeGiorno Pizza with the smooth delivery

Rapper Iggy Azalea made headlines on Grammy night this year, not for her award nominations, but for a Twitter battle with Papa John’s restaurant. Iggy ordered a pizza and the restaurant employee who delivered it distributed her information to their family member, who proceeded to send Iggy unwanted texts. Iggy was less than pleased, with both the texts and the response of a Papa John’s manager, and she spread that displeasure on Twitter.

This was a potential PR nightmare for Papa John’s, which apologized and did their best to address the situation on Twitter. Another brand saw the situation in a different light, however, and rushed in to take advantage.

DiGiorno Pizza is a maker of frozen pizzas that uses the tagline “It’s not delivery, it’s DiGiorno.” The entire situation was a perfect match for their value proposition, and their generally casual and humorous approach to Twitter. Their Tweet was simple but effective, and totally took advantage of a competitor’s screw-up (smh means ‘shake my head’ for the record). By entering the conversation, DiGiorno ended up with a quasi-endorsement from a famous rapper. One brand’s nightmare is another’s dream. Brand Burns 30 Rock

Taco Bell adds a little spice

Taco Bell is known to be one of the most entertaining and humorous brands on Twitter. Their target audience is fairly young, making them the perfect target for funny, risky content. When Old Spice, another brand who doesn’t shy away from humor, presented them with the following opportunity, they were sure to take it.

Old Spice threw it up, and Taco Bell hit it out of the park. This Tweet is the perfect burn. It doesn’t take down the brand, just the Tweet in question. It makes you smile without ever feeling at all malicious.

Brand Burns NPH

Brand on brand burns are far less risky, since no clients are involved. They’re usually far more beneficial as well, since they benefit from the substantial network of both businesses. Case and point: RedBull tried to join in on this duel after the fact (though, in this case, it was uninspired).

Old Spice with the tough love

Since, as mentioned, Old Spice is another brand that embraces humor and risky Tweets, they’ve also earned their spot on this list. Old Spice does a great job of throwing not-so-subtle jabs at followers and fans, especially those who send them weird Tweets. Like poor old Sunil here.

In this case, the Twitter user sent something weird and off-beat, so Old Spice felt comfortable responding in a similar way. The burn is playful, not insulting, that’s a pretty good description of their Twitter presence in general. If you’re going to burn someone, burn someone who is asking for the burn… maybe even hoping for it.

Did you enjoy the carnage? You might like these brands having awesome conversations on Twitter.

The post When Brands Burn: 6 Risky Twitter Convos That Worked appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.



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