Tweets gone wrong

There has been a fair share of Twitter gaffes. Here’s a look at some of the top Twitter mistakes that have occurred in recent times.

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You know a tweet is really bad when you lose your job over it. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried should know. In March of 2011, Gottfried was ousted from his job as the voice of the Aflac duck after he tweeted jokes about the earthquake and tsunami disasters in Japan. Among the tweets the comedian sent: “I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, ‘There’ll be another one floating by any minute now’.” Needless to say, Aflac, which touts itself as Japan’s No. 1 “insurance company in terms of individual policies in force,” did not find him funny at all.

Charles Sykes / AP

Famed clothing designer Kenneth Cole has also committed a Twitter gaffe.

Peter Kramer / AP

In February 2011, an unfortunate tweet sent by @KennethCole used the crisis in Cairo to promote his spring line, the Associated Press reported. After receiving much backlash over it, Cole removed the message and apologized for his “insensitive tweet.”

Anonymous / AP

Careful what you tweet, especially if you rely on Comcast. That’s the message received by the Seattle-based nonprofit Reel Grrls, who was told it had lost $18,000 in funding for a teen summer film camp after it sent a tweet about FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker’s jump to the cable and media giant last year. The tweet not only initially went wrong for the nonprofit group, but it also put Comcast in a bad light. After receiving a lot of flak over its move, Comcast apologized and told Reel Grrls that it wanted to restore its money.

Gene J. Puskar / AP

When a Florida jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of murdering her daughter Caylee in July of 2011, the hashtag #notguilty started catching on in the twitterverse. Unfortunately, baked goods maker Entenmann’s was unaware of this. “Who's #notguilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?!," the company tweeted. The message caused an uproar, which prompted the pastry maker to delete the tweet and issue this apology: “Sorry everyone, we weren't trying to reference the trial in our tweet! We should have checked the trending hashtag first.”

/ Reuters

Gottfried wasn’t the only one to lose a job over a tweet. Chrysler contractor Scott Bartosiewicz tweeted this from the automaker’s official account in March of 2011, the Associated Press reported: "I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to [expletive] drive.” Bartosiewicz meant to send the message from his personal account. When Chrylser caught wind of the blooper, the company decided not to renew Bartosiewicz’s contract, giving him a pink slip instead. Bartosiewicz soon apologized for his flub.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat from New York, pauses while speaking at a news conference in New York on June 6, 2011. Weiner apologized for sending inappropriate photos and texts to women via Twitter.

Jin Lee / Bloomberg

On June 16, 2011, Weiner announced his resignation from Congress during a news conference in New York, saying he could not continue in office amid the intense controversy surrounding sexually explicit messages he sent online to several women.

Seth Wenig / AP

Some Twitter gaffes can leave such a bad taste in your mouth that you just want to take a break from the service. Ashton Kutcher knows. In November of 2011, the actor tweeted a message defending Penn State coach Joe Paterno, unaware that the legendary coach was fired in the wake of a child sex-abuse scandal. Kutcher blogged that he had thought that Paterno had been fired because of his age. Kutcher deleted the tweet and apologized.

Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images

Another company that met the Twitter fail whale in July of 2011 was Microsoft. A few days after the death of songstress Amy Winehouse, the company’s Xbox 360 UK PR account tweeted: “Remember Amy Winehouse by downloading the ground-breaking ‘Back to Black’ over at Zune ...” The tweet soon prompted responses like “stay classy” and “appalling taste.” After realizing its misstep, the account tweeted: “Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse ‘download’ tweet seemed purely commercially motivated. Far from the case, we assure you.”

Matt Dunham

The Winehouse tweet wasn’t the only one Microsoft had to apologize for this year. In March of 2011, the company's Bing Twitter account sent this tweet: "How you can #SupportJapan - http://binged.it/fEh7iT. For every retweet, @bing will give $1 to Japan quake victims, up to $100K." The message led to comments that Microsoft was trying to use the tragedy to market its own products, under the guise of doing good. Microsoft quickly apologized for the tweet for how it was perceived.

Elaine Thompson / AP

In this January file photo, movie critic Roger Ebert works in his office in Chicago. In June 2011, Ebert's Facebook page was taken offline briefly after Ebert posted a message on Twitter about "Jackass" star Ryan Dunn, who died in a fiery car crash. The tweet said: "Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive," Mashable reported. The message prompted a landslide of posts on Ebert's Facebook page.

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP

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