9 PR blunders of 2018

No year is complete without its public relations blunders—the campaigns gone awry, the social media goofs, the burger promos featuring tragic imagery.

Anno Domini 2018 is no exception, and, without schadenfreude, we present some of the year’s worst gaffes.

Some lessons of 2018 are mere goofs. One PR pro we consulted called out Cheesecake Factory for a free-slice promotion that drew the wrong kind of press. Other PR sins seem to relate to deeper, ongoing problems, such as Facebook’s multiple fails.

Following up on our midyear listing, we sounded out PR pros for what they saw as the blunders of the year. Here are the more memorable examples:

1. Z-Burger falls flat with meme about slain journo.

Next time you’re promoting a product and your social media person says, “Let’s do it with a meme involving a journalist murdered by the Islamic State,” you’ll now know to say, “Let’s not.”