Uh-Oh! SpaghettiOs Sends Tasteless Pearl Harbor Tweet
It’s almost as if the SpaghettiOs marketing team wanted a barrage of “Uh-Oh! SpaghettiOs” headlines, which we are more than happy to oblige. The canned spaghetti brand sent out a tweet commemorating the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor Friday night and were immediately taken to task on Twitter for what many clearly saw as a tone deaf move.
It wasn’t long before some big name media figures got in on the act:
Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson was one of the first journalists to notice the questionable tweet:
The fuck? "@SpaghettiOs: Take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us. http://t.co/uK92HC4kfk"
— Tim Dickinson (@7im) December 7, 2013
Fox News’ Andy Levy had a similar reaction:
wtf is this RT @SpaghettiOs: Take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us. http://t.co/mCb46Tn98q
— Andy Levy (@andylevy) December 7, 2013
.@SpaghettiOs maybe sit out the next couple plays
— Andy Levy (@andylevy) December 7, 2013
Keith Olbermann and Jake Tapper were mostly just confused:
Uh boy RT @SpaghettiOs Take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us. http://t.co/CZO5S1Ke02
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) December 7, 2013
Um… RT @SpaghettiOs: Take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us. http://t.co/MsK347Gikf
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 7, 2013
But some of the best reactions came from comedian Patton Oswalt:
Dear @SpaghettiOs: Genuinely afraid to scroll back & see what you Tweeted on the 50th anniversary of JFKs assassination.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 7, 2013
"I know how we'll fix this! Somebody photoshop Mr. O shaking hands with Mandela!" — damage control at the @SpaghettiOs Twitter feed
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 7, 2013
"Uh-oh, @SpaghettiOs the humanity!" pic.twitter.com/FMY5AbYIvy
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 7, 2013
Soon, Twitter users were sending Oswalt their own photoshopped images of the SpaghettiO witnessing other historical atrocities:
@pattonoswalt @SpaghettiOs pic.twitter.com/1aRm9lQsUp
— Adam Steinbaugh (@adamsteinbaugh) December 7, 2013
.@SpaghettiOs Uh-Oh.
@pattonoswalt pic.twitter.com/CIyr5gCP71
— Capn Marrrrk (@capnmarrrrk) December 7, 2013
And good night. Thank you, @SpaghettiOs. Thank you, photoshoppers. And God bless tone-deaf, Tweeting corporate interns everywhere.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 7, 2013
What do you think? Harmless marketing message or insensitive branding ploy?
UPDATE (5:50pm ET): The day after sending out the Pearl Harbor-themed tweet that caused an unexpectedly large uproar on Twitter, SpaghettiOs, which is owned by the Campbell Soup Company deleted the original message and issued an apology:
[image via Twitter]
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