Uh-oh, SpaghettiOs!
The brand pulled a marketing stunt as tasteless as its canned noodles — tweeting a picture of its cartoon pasta ring hoisting an American flag in honor of Pearl Harbor Day.
“Take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us,” the canned noodle company posted Friday at 9:30 p.m.
The offensive image was taken down by 11 a.m. Saturday — but not before the Twitterverse got to it.
“Dear @SpaghettiOs: Genuinely afraid to scroll back & see what you Tweeted on the 50th anniversary of JFKs assassination,” comedian Patton Oswalt wrote.
“Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it,” quipped author Jon Ronson on Twitter.
And good night. Thank you, @SpaghettiOs. Thank you, photoshoppers. And God bless tone-deaf, Tweeting corporate interns everywhere.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 7, 2013People also mocked the lapse in judgment by pasting the cartoon ‘O’ into photos of other historic events. So far, the noodle has appeared in images of the Kent State shooting, JFK assassination and Hindenburg disaster.
“We apologize for our recent tweet in remembrance of Pearl Harbor Day. We meant to pay respect, not to offend,” SpaghettiOs tweeted.
SpaghettiOs isn’t the only brand getting burned for its Twitter posts. AT&T came under fire this year for using Sept. 11 for product placement. The company tweeted a photo of the 9/11 memorial lights — shown through an AT&T phone.