The World Cup was always going to be a tricky assignment for social-media account managers.
With patriotism running wild and a host of competitors who aren't always in the news, it was only a matter of time before a major corporation got carried away and tweeted something ignorant or insensitive.
It looks as if Delta Air Lines is the first U.S. brand to score a viral Twitter flub at this year's tournament, after it celebrated the U.S.'s thrilling 2-1 victory over Ghana last night by posting this unfortunate photo, which has since been deleted:
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The tweet shows the Statue of Liberty to represent the U.S.'s promise of freedom to all who come here and a giraffe to represent Ghana's, uh, being a country in Africa?
Unfortunately for Delta, giraffes do not live in Ghana, and plenty of users, including The New York Times' Binyamin Appelbaum and SB Nation's Spencer Hall, chimed in to let them know:
You get to Ghana and @delta has sent your luggage to some country that actually has giraffes... https://t.co/5JpJMkYf8F
— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) June 17, 2014.@delta Ghana's really more well known for their Clymene Dolphins than giraffes, but that's just me checking Wikipedia for three seconds
— TEDDY GOOALSEVELT (@edsbs) June 17, 2014And this is why people think all Americans are ignorant. Way to go @Deltapic.twitter.com/7MlBDoBt6y
— nicole p. (@nicolecp_15) June 17, 2014Delta later apologized, but its initial apology tweet (since deleted) included a typo.
Go home Delta. Even your apology is drunk. #Preciouspic.twitter.com/K5x8kgv0Zf
— Kelly Mosier (@kmosier42) June 17, 2014Here we go:
We're sorry for our choice of photo in our previous tweet. Best of luck to all teams.
— Delta (@Delta) June 17, 2014At the end of the day, Delta might have been best off sticking with its earlier soccer tweet of the world "goal" and a soccer ball drawn on a Delta cocktail napkin:
Go #USA! #USAvGHA#USMNTpic.twitter.com/55sNXBmL1d
— Delta (@Delta) June 16, 2014