Rude Dunkin Donuts Replaced Liverpool Crest Flames with Iced Coffee
Dunkin Donuts’ original tweet has since been deleted.
In today’s news involving everyday marketing fails, Dunkin Donuts tried its hand at getting chummy with the Liverpool Football Club by tweeting out an altered version of the Liverpool FC crest. As sponsors of the club, the tweet was meant to inspire a contest of the sorts for fans to create their own versions, too.
But as it turns out, Liverpool fans were more insulted by the altering of their beloved crest. The Shankly gates on top, which represent late manager Bill Shankly, had been altered to contain the slogan “America runs on Dunkin,” the Liverbird was swapped with a Dunkin logo, and the Hillsborough eternal flames were replaced with coffee cups. The flames are a memorial to the 96 fans who died in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
So, overall, the American way of adding a double shot of marketing to everything turns out to be not OK on many levels. Dunkin Donuts’ original tweet has since been deleted, and fans naturally took their anger and disdain to social media:
Do you wanna tell @DunkinDonuts how bad replacing the eternal flame with coffee is or should we? #LFC pic.twitter.com/qnJRkEVDGT
— Kop Magazine (@TheKopMagazine) February 25, 2015
That Dunkin’ Donuts Liverpool badge tweet is fucking embarrassing. Someone at #LFC needs to have a word.
— Tommy (@Tommy_1972) February 25, 2015
I can not BELIEVE that Dunkin Donuts thought it would be okay to replace the Eternal Flames on Liverpool’s crest with iced coffees…
— Maxwell Hogg (@HoggLoko) February 26, 2015
It’s actually embarrassing that we have a mob like @DunkinDonuts, who can’t do market research, handling our club’s brand. #LFCFamily
— Dave (@AbsoluteKop) February 26, 2015
Liverpool Football Club have sold their soul, that Dunkin Donuts thing is a disgrace
— Jack (@Beansie96) February 25, 2015
Dunkin Donuts later issued an apology to Liverpool Echo after recognizing its insensitivity:
We apologize for any insensitivity regarding our tweet supporting an LFC-themed promotion featuring the LFC Crest.
As a proud partner of LFC, we did not intend any offense, particularly to the Club’s supporters. We have removed the tweet and halted the campaign immediately.
Today, not a great win for doughnuts.
