Qantas Has 'Epic PR Fail' With Twitter Campaign

It’s been a rough stretch for Qantas. First, the Australian airline abruptly stranded customers around the world amid a contract fight with its unions; then those talks collapsed entirely; this week, the firm ticked off customers again with a contest on Twitter. It asked people to tweet their “dream luxury in-flight experience,” and customers were happy to oblige, Reuters reports. One wrote that luxury was “more than 3mins notice that the whole airline is on strike."

Another wrote that Qantas luxury was “being stranded on the other side of the world without warning when you just want to get home to your 10-month-old daughter." And on and on. PR experts called it a disaster. “Epic PR fail, excellent case study in corporate cultural tone deafness. Simply don't get it,” said one. Qantas sounded unfazed, however, coming back with a joke: “At this rate our #QantasLuxury competition is going to take years to judge.” (More Qantas stories.)