No matter your age, the company wants you to be a part of its journey.
Even though social media mistakes are not new, they are very common in the automotive industry. The latest was from BMW. It happened this week. The launch of the BMW iX flagship EV saw the automaker from Munich get a lot of criticism, mostly from loyal fans.
“OK, Boomer. What’s the reason to not change? These were exact words that BMW used in a tweet on November 16, 2020. This was to respond to criticisms, specifically this: “Go back making BMWs.”
This response from BMW attracted more criticism, in part because it was an attack on age discrimination. The meme slang “OK, Boomer” can be used to make fun of older people who have difficulty keeping up with modern times. It could also indicate a different mindset in the midst of development and progress.
BMW apologized for the use of meme slang two day later, as you can see in the embedded tweet.
“No matter your age, we are here to help. We’re sorry, we didn’t mean to offend anyone by using meme slang. “The road to the new world is not easy, but we hope that you will join us on this journey,” read the social media post.
This isn’t the first time BMW has made a mistake on social media. In March, at the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, BMW used coronavirus themed messaging to promote the i8 via Twitter. After receiving negative feedback, the company removed the tweet and apologized. We hope that mistakes like this don’t cause more harm than good and that car companies will be more mindful of social issues when using social media platforms.