Whatever you think about Wendy’s comments lamenting Katy Perry’s return from space, one aspect of the fracas is beyond dispute: Brands on X have touched the third rail like this before.
Many, many times before.
First, a quick recap. On April 14, an all-female crew that included Perry, Lauren Sanchez, and Gayle King blasted off in Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket on an 11-minute suborbital mission. When Pop Crave announced that “Katy Perry has returned from space,” Wendy’s replied: “Can we send her back.”
Snarky? Without a doubt. Offensive? Depends who you ask. One fan responded: “I’m going to have Wendy’s for dinner tonight because of this tweet.” But many women—including Perry—were hurt by the swipe.
“We understand the internet loves a joke, but there’s a clear difference between humor and targeted hostility,” an unidentified source close to the mission told the New York Post’s Page Six. “This was a billion-dollar brand using its platform to publicly demean a woman.”
Wendy’s has attempted to mollify Perry by calling her an “out-of-the-world talent,” but at press time had not retracted its posting.
What’s surprising here isn’t so much that a burger chain has stepped in the poop over a very popular female vocalist, but that social media missteps—and sometimes far worse—are still happening. Twitter, which became X in July 2023, has been with us for close to 19 years now, yet somehow the fumbles have kept coming. Below, five striking examples.
Chrysler — March 9, 2011
In the 2011 Super Bowl, Chrysler aired “Imported from Detroit,” a two-minute paean to the Motor City that starred Eminem and won plaudits from millions of viewers. Weeks later, the automaker undid much of the goodwill that had cost $12 million in airtime to win.