Blunders That Make Your Content Go Viral for the Wrong Reasons

The most desired type of content is the one that goes viral, and content creators, marketers, and businesses are in the perpetual pursuit of this dream. Viral content can give you incredible exposure and the potential to increase brand visibility and attract audiences across the globe. However, the wrong kind of viral message or event may devastatingly impact a brand, resulting in lost customers and a damaged reputation. Here are some common mistakes that can land you in viral infamy and what you can do to avoid them.

1. Lack of Cultural Sensitivity 

Cultural insensitivity is one of the fastest roads to content failure. Once a piece of content is construed as insensitive or offensive to one culture or group of people, it tends to be sent viral, getting massive outrage on social networks and beyond. Recall the times when brands inadvertently co-opted cultural references or mocked serious cultural icons.

Example of Coca Cola in New Zealand:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/17/coca-colas-marketing-slogan-backfires-in-new-zealand.html

How to Avoid: Research the meaning of symbols, phrases, and images you use. If you are writing about a sensitive issue. Have it vetted by people from the culture or group about which you are writing so you do not offend them. Check with multiple contacts because one person’s opinion may be the outlier not the norm. 

2. Poor Timing

Timing is Everything!

Timing is everything. Politics, jokes, or even light-hearted posts at the wrong time will garner negative attention. News at the same time as a celebrity’s tweet can garner negative attention.

How to Avoid: Keep abreast of current affairs and public opinion. Before publishing, you should always ask yourself: “Could this possibly be construed as insensitive or insensitive given the current circumstances?”

3. The Clickbait Outing

The sensationalized headline can attract in the short run, but misdirecting your readers with exaggerated claims or flat-out deceptive content is a fantastic way to invite some negative attention. Get ready for people to share it out of frustration or to mock it, hence getting all that wrong exposure in all the wrong way.

How to Avoid: Craft interesting headlines that perform what they promise to do so truthfully. Build your audience’s trust by being truthful rather than exaggerative – ultimately you want your audience to be customers and customers need to trust the brand for the long term. 

4. Inadvertent Double Meaning

In the quest to make the content catchy, sometimes the phrases, images, or designs are ignored. The words or visuals might be read in a way that you didn’t intend, and things quickly get out of hand on social media. A good example of this recently is New Zealand’s Tourism Departments gaffe, “everyone must go.” The intention was that everyone must go to New Zealand, however, there a wave of people leaving NZ because of high cost of living and NZ government spending cuts leading to big job losses in the country. There this was a tone-deaf double meaning slogan  with “social media users likening it to a clearance sale advertisement, a marketing campaign for the apocalypse, or a desperate plea for access to the the toilet.””

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/17/new-zealand-everyone-must-go-tourism-campaign-criticism-emigration

How to Avoid: Careful proofreading, have others review what you’re posting, and a fresh look can help you spot some potential double meaning or visual ambiguities before it’s public.

5. Bandwagoning on Trends without Research

Trendy ≠ Trustworthy!

Diversions and the latest trends easily grab one’s attention, but without one’s full understanding of the issues and the context surrounding them, they are bound to attract negative attention. For instance, how certain brands use social movements to “sell” their products in ways that seem insincere and opportune.

How to Avoid: Before getting on the bandwagon, do some homework on the history and background of this bandwagon. Decide if the execution fits with your brand’s ethos and if the participation is authentic rather than opportunistic.

6. Offensive or Crass Humor

Humor often brings content closer to your audience, but humor that is off-color, prickly, or divisive tends to blow up in one’s face. Many will find your attempt at humorous entertainment repulsive and share content back like a kick in the teeth to your reputation.

How to Avoid: Consider whether the joke works with your audience. A helpful guideline is that some topics don’t belong in comedy, such as politics, religion, race, or gender, unless your brand targets that and you know how to handle it.

7. Not Correcting Anything Wrong Immediately

Mistakes happen – but ignoring them or taking too long to respond makes things worse. If people catch errors or offensive elements in your content and you fail to address the issue, the situation will blow out of proportion as it is interpreted that you seem dismissive or out of touch.

How to Avoid: Monitor responses and feedback after the posting of content. If an issue comes up, address it promptly and professionally, and offer to rectify it if necessary with an apology.

8. Not Understanding Your Audience

Know Your Audience!

Sometimes, content goes viral because it entirely fails the intended audience. Take a business using aggressively trendy language or concepts: not in the customer base that business needs. Ridicule and shares should not fit into that category.

How to avoid: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE inside out. Ask before publishing – does this truly resonate with your demographic? Tailor your tone, language and style to fit their preferences and expectations.

9. Uploading Old Content as Old

The practice of reuploading old content may appear to save time. However, if the content is not brought up to date, thereby not taking into consideration changes in new information or shifts in societal norms, it may invite unwanted criticism. Older or irrelevant content may be deemed to have bad taste and might be perceived to be in poor taste.

How to Avoid: Before uploading old content, update it to make it relevant, current, and suitable for the time.

Final Thoughts: Authentic, Thoughtful, Positive Content

While you can’t control how every reaction occurs, you can exert considerable control in planning and creating content that’s authentic, thoughtful and well-researched.