Delta’s World Cup Giraffe Gaffe on Twitter

This is half of the image Delta tweeted out after the U.S. beat Ghana in the World Cup, featuring a giraffe next to the Ghana score. Buzz60

By Kristi Palma

June 18, 2014

1 minute to read

Add Delta to the list of airlines posting tweets that go awry.

This tweet has to do with the World Cup.

Delta tweeted a photo following the U.S.’s win over Ghana. The photo depicted the final score, with a photo of the Statue of Liberty beside the U.S. score and a giraffe beside the Ghana score. The problem? There are no giraffes in Ghana, except for at zoos. As Buzz60 puts it, “No, the entire continent of Africa does not look like ‘The Lion King.’’’

To add salt to the wound, Delta offers direct flights to Ghana. Doesn’t anyone at Delta know what it’s like there? Of course, folks on Twitter jumped all over the airline for the giraffe gaffe.

Delta took down the tweet and posted an apology. But the first apology came out all wrong. Here’s how it read: “We’re sorry for our choice of photo in our precious tweet. Best of luck to all teams playing in the World Cup.’’ Yeah. So that was also removed. And it was replaced with this one:

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Because the Twitterverse loves a good scandal, the tweets continue. But not everyone is quick to blame Delta. While many feel the airline should have known better — check out this tweet posted by Janna from New Hampshire:

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Others, like Heather from Florida, are defending Delta:

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What do you think? Should Delta have known better?

You may remember that US Airways was in hot water back in April when it tweeted a pornographic photo to a customer.

It seems the airline social media teams need to step up their game.